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Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


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Map  of  the  Borough  of  Manhattan. 


Greater  New  York 

Its  Government, 
Financial  Institutions, 
Transportation  Facilities 
And  Chronology 

INCLUDING  MAPS  OF 

Greater  New  York 

AND  THE 

Borough  of  Manhattan 


Copyrighted  1898,  by 

THE  EVENING  POST  PUBLISHING  CO. 
NEW  YORK 


123.  Mi 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


The  following  articles  are  selected  from  a  large  num- 
ber of  similar  compilations  which  were  published  in  a 
"Greater  New  York  Supplement"  by  the  Evening  Post  at 
the  end  of  the  year.  They  were  designed  to  accompany 
the  maps  which  were  presented  to  the  readers  of  the 
paper  on  the  occasion  of  the  new  city's  birth,  and  are 
now  reproduced  in  pamphlet  form  because  the  original 
edition  is  out  of  print. 

GOVERNMENT   OF  THE  CITY. 

Mayor  Van  Wyck  will  hold  office  for  four  years,  and 
his  salary  will  be  $15,000.  He  will  have,  during  the  first 
six  months  of  his  term,  power  to  remove  all  heads  of 
departments,  except  members  of  the  Board  of  Education, 
and  to  appoint  men  of  his  own  choice  in  their  places. 
He  will  have  between  forty  and  fifty  salaried  offices  to 
fill,  the  aggregate  salaries  of  which  will  amount  to  about 
half  a  million  dollars.  Following  is  a  list  of  the  ap- 
pointments which  he  has  thus  far  made  to  the  chief  of- 
fices: 

CORPORATION  COUNSEL. 

Term 

years.  Salary. 


John  Whulen     4  $15,0.0 

CITY  CHAMBERLAIN. 

Patrick  Keenan   4  12,000 

BOARD  OF  PUBLIC  IMPROVEMENTS. 

President,  Maurice  F.  Holahan   6  8,000 

Commissioner  of  Water  Supply,  William  Dalton.  6  7,500 

Commissioner  of  Highways,  James  P.  Keating..  6  7,500 

Commissioner  of  Street-Cleaning,  James  Mc- 
Cartney  6  7,500 

Commissioner  of  Sewers,  James  Kane   6  7,500 

Commissioner    of    Public    Buildings,  Lighting, 

and  Supplies,  Henry  S.  Kearny   6  7,500 

Commissioner  of  Bridges,  John  L.  Shea   6  7,500 


4 


GREATER  NEW;YORK 


POLICE  COMMISSIONERS. 

Term 

Years  Salary 

President.  Bernard  J.  York                                   4  5,000 

Treasurer,  Tho?uas  L.  Hamilton,                         3  5,000 

John  B.  Sexton                                                      2  5,000 

William  E.  Phillips                                                1  5,000 

DOCK  COMMISSIONERS. 

President,  J.  Sergeant  Cram                                4  0,000 

Peter  F.  Meyer                                                      6  5,000 

Charles  F.  Murphy                                                2  5,000 

DEPARTMENT  OF  PARKS. 
President  and  Commissioner  in  Manhattan  and 

Richmond,  George  C.  Clausen                          4  5,000 

Commissioner    in    Brooklyn    and    Queens,  George 

V.  Brower                                                           6  5,000 

Commissioner  in  the  Bronx,   August  Moebus.  .    2  5,000 

DEPARTMENT   OF  CHARITIES. 
President   and  Commissioner  in  Manhattan  and 

the  Bronx,  John  W.  Kellar                             6  7,500 

Commissioner  in  Brooklyn  and  Queens,  Adolph 

S  mis,  jr                                                            4  7,500 

Commissioner  in  Richmond,  John  Feeny                 2  2,500 

COMMISSIONER  OF  CORRECTION. 

Francis  J.  Lantry                                                6  7,500 

DEPARTMENT  OF  HEALTH. 

President,  Nathan  Straus                                        2  7,500 

Dr.  William  T.    Jenkins                                        6  6,000 

Dr.  John  B.  Ccsby                                                4  6,000 

DEPARTMENT  OF  BUILDINGS. 
President  and  Commissioner  in  Manhattan  and 

the  Bronx,  Thomas  J.  Brady                             6  7,000 

Commissioner  in  Brooklyn,  Daniel  Ryan                 4  7,000 

Commissioner  in  Richmond  and  Queens,  Daniel 

Campbell                                                          2  3,500 

FIRE  COMMISSIONER. 

John  J.  Scannell                                                     6  7,500 

BOARD  OF  TAXES  AND  ASSESSMENT. 

President,  Thomas  L.  Feitner                               6  8,000 

Commissioner,    Edward   C.    Sheehy                       4  7,000 

Commissioner,  Arthur  C.  Salmon                          1  7,000 

Commissioner,  Thomas  J.  Patterson                      3  7,000 

Commissioner,  William  Grell                                2  7,000 

BOARD  OF  ASSESSORS. 

Edward  Cahill                                                           Indef.  3,000 

Thomas  A.  Wilson                                                Indef.  3,000 

John  Delmar                                                          Indef.  3,000 

Edward   McCue                                                      Indef.  3,000 

Patrick    M.    Haverty                                           Indef.  3,000 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


5 


COMMISSIONERS  OF  ACCOUNTS. 

Term 

Years  Salary 

John  C.   Hertle    Indef.  5,000 

Edward  Owen    Indef.  5,000 

COMMISSIONER  OF  JURORS  FOR  MANHATTAN  AND  BRONX. 
John  Purcell    Indef.  5,000 

BUREAU  OF  MUNICIPAL  STATISTICS. 

Chief,  Dr.  John  T.   Nagle   4  3.500 

Commissioner  Thornton  N.  Motley   Indef.  No  salary 

Frederick    A.  Grube   Indef.  No  salary 

Jules  C.  Kugelmau   Indef.  No  salary 

Richard    T.    Wilson,    jr   Indef.  No  salary 

Henry    Payne    Whitney   Indef.  No  salary 

CIVIL-SERVICE  COMMISSIONERS. 

Charles  H.  Knox                                                 Indef.  No  salary 

Robert  E.  Deyo                                                     Indef.  No  salary 

William  N.   Dykman                                           Indef.  No  salary 

AQUEDUCT  COMMISSIONERS. 

P.  J.  Dooley   Till  1901  5,000 

Maurice  J.  Power    Till  1901  5,000 

Charles  H.  Murray    Till  1901  5,000 

William  H.  Ten  Eyck   Till  1901  5,000 

These  Commissioners  were  appointed  by  the  Mayor,  on 
an  opinion  by  the  Corporation  Counsel  that  he  had  the 
power  to  remove  four  others  who  were  in  office  in  order 
to  create  vacancies.  This  question  is  to  be  contested  in 
the  courts  by  the  removed  Commissioners. 

MUNICIPAL  ASSEMBLY. 

The  Municipal  Assembly  is  composed  of  two  houses — 
the  Council  and  the  Board  of  Aldermen.  The  Council 
contains  twenty-nine  members,  term  four  years,  one  of 
whom  (its  President)  is  chosen  on  a  general  ticket  by 
the  whole  city,  salary  $5,000;  twenty-eight  by  districts, 
salary  $1,500.  The  Board  of  Aldermen  contains  sixty 
members,  elected  for  two  years,  salary  $1,000.  The  Al- 
dermen have  elected  P.  J.  Scully  City  Clerk,  term  six 
years,  salary  $6,000  a  year.  The  President  of  the  Coun- 
cil acts  as  Mayor  during  absence  of  the  latter,  or  in  case 
of  a  vacancy;  but  he  cannot  appoint  or  remove  any  one 
unless  the  Mayor  shall  be  absent  ten  days,  nor  sign  any 
ordinance  or  resolution  until  he  has  been  absent  nine 
days.  Any  ex- Mayor  of  the  new  city  may  sit  in  the  Coun- 
cil, so  long  as  he  resides  in  the  city,  but  he  cannot  vote 


6 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


Any  head  of  an  administrative  department  may  sit  in 
ihe  Board  of  Aldermen,  and  may  take  pait  in  debate,  but 
cannot  vote.  The  following  is  a  full  list  of  the  members 
of  the  new  Municipal  Assembly,  with  the  politics  of  each: 

Council. 

President,    Randolph   Guggenheimer,  Tarn. 
BOROUGHS  OF  MANHATTAN  AND  THE  BRONX. 


Dist. 

1.  Thomas  F.  Foley,  Tarn. 
John  T.  Oakley,  Tarn. 
Martin  Engel,  Tarn. 

2.  Frank  J.  Goodwin,  Tarn. 
Charles  F.  Allen,  Tarn. 
Patrick  J.  Ryder,  Tarn. 

3.  Harry  C.  Hart,  Tarn. 
George  B.  Christman,  Tarn. 


Dist. 

John  J.   Murphy,  Tarn. 

4.  Eugene  A.  Wise,  Tarn. 
Stewart  M.  Brice,  Tarn. 
Herman  Sulzer,  Tarn. 

5.  Wm.  J.  Hyland,  Tarn. 
A.    C.   Hottenroth,  Tarn. 
Bernard  C.  Murray,  Tarn. 


BOROUGH  OF  BROOKLYN. 


Dist. 

C.    H.   Ebbets,  Dem. 
8.  J.   J.   McGarry,  Dem. 
W.  A.  Doyle,  Dem. 
M.  F.  Conley,  Dem. 


Dist. 

6.  F.  F.  Williams,  R.  &  C.  U. 
C.  H.  Francisco,  R.  &  0.  U. 
C.  H.  Hester,  D. 

7.  A.  H.  Leich,  R.  &  C.  U. 
H.  French,  Dem. 

BOROUGH  OF  QUEENS. 
Dist.  I  Dist. 

9.  D.  L.  Van  Nostrand,  Dera.     I    9.  J.    Cassidy,  Dem. 

BOROUGH  OF  RICHMOND. 

Dist.  I  Dist. 

10.  J.  F.  O'Grady,  Dem.  |  10.  B.  J.  Bodine,  Dem. 

Tammany    16 

Democrats    10 

Republicans  and  Citizens'  Union   3 

Total    29 

Board  of  Aldermen. 


President,  Thomas 
BOROUGHS  OF  MANH 

Dist. 

1.  Jere.  Kennefick,  Tarn. 

2.  Jeremiah    Cronin,  Tarn. 

3.  Joseph  E.   Welling,  Tarn 

4.  Bernard   Glick,  Tarn. 

5.  J.  A.  Flinn,  Tam. 

6.  F.  F.  Fleck,  Tam. 

7.  P.   H.   Keahon,  Tam. 

8.  Louis  Minsky,  Tam. 

9.  Henry   Siefke,  Tam. 
10.  J.  P.  Kock,  Tam. 


F.  Wood,  Tam. 
ATTAN  AND  BRONX. 
Dist. 

11.  W.  H.  Gledhill,  Tam. 

12.  J.  J.  Smith,  Tam. 

13.  Charles   Metzger,  Tam. 

14.  J.  P.  Hart,  Tam. 

15.  Robert  Muh,  Tam. 

16.  Emil  Neufeld,  Tam. 

17.  D.   J.   Harrington,  Tam. 

18.  J.  E.  Gaffney,  Tam. 

19.  J.  J.  Geagan,  Tam. 

20.  T.  F.  Woods,  Tam. 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


7 


21.  J.  S.  Roddy,  Tam. 

22.  Michael    Ledwith,  T, 

23.  Collin  H.  Wood  ward,  R.&C. 

24.  Frank  Dunn.  Tam. 

25.  P.  T.  Sherman,  C.  U. 

26.  E.   F.   MeEneany,  Tam. 

27.  Jos.  Oatman,  C.  U. 

28.  J.  T.  McCall,  Tam. 

BOROUGH 

Dist. 

1.  John  L.  Burleigh,  Rep. 

2.  James  P.  Bridges,  Dem. 

3.  Moses  J.   Wafer,  Dem. 

4.  D.  S.  Stewart,  Rep. 

5.  J.  F.  Elliott,  Dem. 

6.  John  Diemer,  Rep. 

7.  Willbim  Keegan,  Dem. 

8.  F.  P.  Kenny,  Dem. 

9.  Frank  Flenne^sy,  Dem. 

10.  Francis  J.    Bryne,  Dem. 

11.  S.  W.  McKeever,  Dem. 


29.  Homer  Folks,  C.  U.  &  N.  D. 

30.  G.    A.    Burrell,  Tam. 
U.    31.  Elias  Goodman,  Rep. 

32.  W.   F.   Schneider,  Tam. 

33.  T.  F.  McCaul,  Tam. 

34.  L.   W.   McGrath,  Tam. 

35.  Henry  Geiger,  Tam. 
Annexed   District,  Frank  Gass,T. 

OF  BROOKLYN. 
Dist. 

12.  M.  E.  Dooley,  Dem. 

13.  Hector  McNeile,  Rep. 

14.  E.  '  S.  Scott,  Dem. 

15.  J.  V.  Velton,  Dem. 

16.  William  Wentz.  Rep. 

17.  J.  D.  Ackerman,  Rep. 

18.  J.   H.   Mclnnes,  Rep. 

19.  Bernard    Schmitt,  Dem. 

20.  John  T.  Lang,  Dem. 

21.  Elias   Helgans,  Dem. 


BOROUGH  OF  QUEENS. 
Joseph  Geiser,  Dem.   William  T.  James,  Rep. 

BOROUGH  OF  RICHMOND. 

John  J.  Vaughan,   jr.,  Dem. 

Tammany    31 

Democrats   16 

Republicans    9 

Citizens'    Union   2 

Citizens*    Union   and   Republican   1 

Citizens'  Union  and  Democrat   1 


Total    60 

The  Boroughs, 

The  new  city  will  he  divided  into  five  horoughs,  de- 
signated as  Manhattan,  Bronx,  Brooklyn,  Queens,  and 
Richmond.  The  Borough  of  Manhattan  comprises  that 
portion  of  the  present  city  of  New  York  known  as  Manhat- 
tan Island,  Governor's  Island,  Bed'ow's  Island,  Ellis  Island, 
the  Oyster  Islands,  together  with  Blackwell's  Island,  Ran- 
dall's Island,  and  Ward's  Island  in  the  East  and  Harlem 
Rivers.  The  Borough  of  Bronx  comprises  all  that  portion 
of  the  city  of  New  York  lying  northerly  and  easterly  of 
the  Borough  of  Manhattan,  between  the  Hudson  and  East 
Rivers  and  Long  Island  Sound,  and  including  the  several 
islands  belonging  to  the  municipal  corporation  of  New 
York  not  included  in  the  Borough  of  Manhattan.  The 


8 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


Borough>  of  Brooklyn  comprises  that  portion  now  known 
as  the  city  of  Brooklyn.  The  Borough  of  Queens  com- 
prises that  portion  of  Queens  County  included  in  the 
city  of  New  York— that  is,  Flushing,  part  of  Hempstead, 
Jamaica,  Jamaica  Bay,  Long  Island  City,  and  Newtown. 
The  Borough  of  Richmond  comprises  the  territory  known 
as  Richmond  County,  or  Staten  Island. 

Each  borough  has  a  President,  chosen  for  four  years,  at 
the  last  election,  as  follows: 

Salary. 


Manhattan,  Augugstus  W.  Peters,  Tarn   $5,000 

Bronx,    Louis    F.    Haffen,    Tam   5.000 

Brooklyn,  Edward  M.  Grout,  Dem   5,000 

Queens,  Frederick  Bowley,  Dem   3,000 

Ricbmond,  George  Cromwell,  Rep   3.000 


The  chief  function  of  the  Borough  Presidents  is  to 
preside  over  the  meetings  of  the  various  local  boards  of 
the  borough.  There  will  be  a  local  Board  of  Public  Im- 
provements in  each  of  the  twenty-two  Senate  districts  or 
parts  thereof  comprised  io  the  city.  Each  local  board  will 
consist  of  the  President  of  the  borough  wherein  the  dis- 
trict is  situated,  by  virtue  of  his  office,  and  of  each  mem- 
ber of  the  .Municipal  Assembly  who  is  a  resident  of  such 
local-improvement  district,  by  virtue  of  his  office,  and 
during  his  term  of  office.  The  jurisdiction  of  each  local 
board  is  confined  to  the  district  for  which  it  is  constituted, 
and  to  those  subjects  or  matters  the  costs  and  expenses 
whereof  are  in  whole  or  in  part  a  charge  upon  the  people 
oi  property  of  the  district  or  a  part  thereof,  except  where 
jurisdiction  over  such  matters  is  given  to  some  other  branch 
of  the  local  administration.  Subject  to  this  exception, 
and  any  other  restrictions  provided  by  the  charter,  a  local 
board  is  to  have  power  in  all  cases  where  the  cost  of  an 
improvement  is  to  be  met  in  whole  or  in  part  by  assess- 
ments upon  the  property  benefited,  to  recommend  that 
proceedings  be  initiated  to  open,  close,  extend,  widen, 
grade,  pave,  regrade,  repave,  and  repair  the  streets,  ave- 
nues, and  public  places,  and  to  construct  lateral 
sewers  within  the  district;  to  flag  or  reflag,  curb  or  re- 
curb  the  sidewalks,  and  to  relay  cross-walks  on  such 
streets  and  avenues;  to  set  or  reset  street  lamps,  and  to 
provide  signs  designating  the  names  of  the  streets.  A  local 
board  is,  further,  to  have  power  to  hear  complaints  of 


greater;kew  york 


9 


nuisances  in  streets  or  avenues,  or  against  disorderly 
houses,  drinking-saloons,  gambling-houses,  or  other  mat- 
ters or  things  concerning  the  peace,  comfort,  order,  and 
good  government  respecting  any  neighborhood  within  the 
district,  or  concerning  the  condition  of  the  poor  within 
the  district,  and  to  pass  such  resolutions  concerning  the 
same  as  may  not  be  inconsistent  with  the  powers  of  the 
Municipal  Assembly  or  of  the  administrative  departments 
of  the  city.  Every  resolution  of  the  local  boards  must 
be  submitted  to  the  Mayor  for  his  approval. 

Board  of  Public  Improvements, 

A  novel  and  important  feature  of  the  new  charter  is 
the  Board  of  Public  Improvements,  which  is  composed  of 
a  President,  appointed  by  the  Mayor,  salary  $8,000;  the 
Commissioner  of  Water  Supply,  the  Commissioner  of  High- 
ways, the  Commissioner  of  Street  Cleaning,  the  Commis- 
sioner of  Sewers,  the  Commissioner  of  Public  Buildings, 
Lighting  and  Supplies,  the  Commissioner  of  Bridges,  the 
Mayor,  the  Corporation  Counsel,  and  the  five  Borough 
Presidents.  This  body  will  have  power  to  authorize  and 
execute  all  public  improvements,  subject  to  the  concur- 
rent approval  of  the  Municipal  Assembly  and  the  local 
boards.  It  will  have  power  also  to  veto  any  improvement 
schemes  approved  by  either  the  local  boards  or  the  Mu- 
nicipal Assembly.  It  must  meet  at  least  once  a  week,  In 
such  place  as  the  Municipal  Assembly  shall  provide. 


CHAMBER   OF  COMMERCE. 

The  oldest  commercial  institution  in  this  city  is  the 
New  York  Chamber  of  Commerce,  which  resulted  from  a 
meeting  of  twenty  merchants  in  Faunce's  tavern  on  April 
5,  17G8.  A  charter  was  obtained  from  King  George 
through  Gov.  Colden,  dated  March  13,  1770,  the  Chamber, 
therefore,  really  antedating  the  establishment  of  the  repub- 
lic. The  first  President  was  John  Cruger,  a  prominent 
shipowner,  a  trusted  representative  of  the  Crown,  and 
Mayor  of  the  city  for  ten  years.  The  Chamber's  meetings 
were  suspended  during  the  Revolutionary  war,  but  if 
was  reincorporated  by  a  special  act  of  the  New  York  Le- 
gislature April  13,  1784,  and  was  reorganized  April  20,  1784, 


10 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


by  the  forty  corporators  mentioned  therein,  with  John  Al- 
sop  as  its  President.  To  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  be- 
longs the  credit  of  first  suggesting  the  construction  of 
the  Erie  Canal,  and  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  the  com- 
mercial prosperity  and  welfare  of  this  city  and  country 
it  is  always  found  in  the  lead.  It  has  collected  and  dis- 
tributed more  than  $2,000,000  for  charity,  and,  as  was  said 
at  one  of  its  recent  annual  meetings  by  its  then  President, 
Charles  Stewart  Smith,  it  matters  not  what  political  party 
holds  the  reins  of  government,  the  Chamber  is  bound  by 
tradition  and  precedent,  in  all  matters  of  state  and  na- 
tional legislative  relations  to  commerce  and  industry,  to 
promote  good  laws,  to  amend  imperfect  laws,  and  to  defeat 
bad  ones.  From  twenty  members  at  the  time  of  its  or- 
gan ir/ation,  the  Chamber's  membership  roll  has  grown  to 
1,250  at  the  present  time.  Alexander  E.  Orr  is  the  present 
President  of  the  Chamber,  and  George  Wilson  is  serving 
his  fortieth  year  as  Secretary.  The  Chamber's  well-known 
portrait  gallery  contains  portraits  of  all  the  early  Presi- 
dents of  the  Chamber  except  three,  besides  the  portraits 
of  153  of  former  well-known  members,  the  leading  mer- 
chants of  this  city  in  their  day. 


MOVEMENT   OP  POPULATION. 

From  before  the  time  when  the  City  Fathers  turned  the 
cheaper  brown-stone  side  of  the  city's  hall  towards  the  field 
?nd  pastures  above  Chambers  Street,  thinking  that  no 
bovine  dweller  therein  would  ever  feel  the  slight  which 
has  become  a  byword  for  short-sightedness,  when  a  Luthe- 
ran church,  though  in  deep  straits,  rejected  a  gift  of  six 
acres  in  the  vicinity  of  Canal  Street  and  Broadway,  because 
the  land  was  not  worth  fencing,  and  capitalists  condemned 
as  visionary  a  plan  to  preserve  the  Collect  Pond  and  sur- 
round it  with  a  park,  the  march  of  population,  like  that  of 
business,  has  been  northward,  veering  first  east  and  then 
west;  not  of  the  diurnal  throng  which  pours  over  the  rivers 
from  Brooklyn  and  Hoboken  and  Hackensack  to  vend  its 
wares  or  its  wits  in  Manhattan  markets,  content  that  the 
market  is  there  and  satisfied  to  live  elsewhere,  but  of  those 
to  whom  belonged  the  honor  of  forming  part  of  that  last 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


11 


member  of  the  ancient  city  corporation,  the  "commonalty" 
of  the  city  of  New  York. 

The  movement  may  be  traced  curiously  in  the  history  of 
the  ward  lines,  the  location  of  which  was  the  result  of  the 
shifting  and  growth  of  the  city's  population.  The  Mont- 
gomery charter  in  1730  divided  Manhattan  Island  into  seven 
wards.  Six  of  these  lay  below  what  is  now  Canal  Street, 
and  the  other,  the  Out  Ward,  took  in  the  rest  of  the  island. 
The  boundaries  of  the  first  five  wards,  the  city  of  colony 
times,  were  laid  down  in  1791,  and  remain  the  same  to  this 
day.  The  growing  ward  was  then  the  Sixth,  which  included 
the  region  between  Broadway,  Park  Row,  and  the  Bowery, 
as  far  north  as  Houston  Street.  In  ten  years  the  principle 
of  equal  representation  in  Aldermen  required  the  creation 
of  two  new  wards.  The  city  was  filling  up  between  Canal 
and  Houston  Streets,  the  Bowery,  and  the  North  River,  and 
the  Eighth  Ward  was  formed.  For  Greenwich  village  and 
the  growing  country  northward  the  Ninth  Ward  was  laid 
out.    This  was  in  1801. 

From  the  First,  or  Dock  Ward,  the  population  had 
spread  on  the  east  side  as  far  as  the  "Swamp,"  then  a'ong 
the  North  River  as  far  as  the  Lispenard  Meadows.  Then 
the  current  set  easterly  toward  Corlears  Hook  after  the 
filling  of  the  Collect  Pond,  and  westerly  again  when  the  old 
canal  which  ran  across  the  city  was  filled  up.  By  1808  the 
tide  of  settlement  along  the  East  River  bank  had  been 
such  that  the  territory  between  Catharine  and  Division  and 
Grand  Streets  and  the  river  was  erected  into  a  new  ward, 
the  Seventh,  which  stands  to  this  day.  To  such  small 
limits  had  the  original  Out  Ward  been  reduced.  By  182b 
the  march  northward  had  been  such  that  the  "Out  Ward," 
the  Twelfth  it  was  then,  began  at  Fourteenth  Street.  The 
Tenth  Ward  of  that  time,  which  lay  between  the  Bowery 
and  the  East  River  and  Division,  Grand,  and  Rivington 
Streets,  was  about  as  thickly  settled  as  the  Eighth,  which 
lay  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  island,  and  more  thickly 
than  tte  Ninth,  which  expended  between  Houston  and  Four- 
teenth Streets,  from  the  North  River  to  the  Bowery  and 
Fourth  Avenue,  and  the  Eleventh,  which  lay  between  the 
tame  streets  and  extended  from  the  Bowery  to  the  East 
River.  By  1837  the  Thirteenth  Ward  had  been  cut  from 
the  Tenth,  and  the  Fourteenth  from  the  Eighth  in  1827,  the 


12 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


Fifteenth  from  the  Ninth  in  1832,  and  the  Seventeenth  from 
the  Eleventh  in  1837.  After  that  year  no  changes  in  ward 
lines  were  made  below  Fourteenth  Street.  The  partitioning 
of  the  Out  Ward  still  went  on,  however.  The  Sixteenth 
Ward,  on  the  west  side,  was  formed  from  the  Twelfth  in 
1835,  and  the  Eighteenth,  on  the  east,  ten  years  later. 
These  two,  which  now  include  the  part  of  the  island  be- 
tween Fourteenth  and  Twenty-sixth  Streets,  at  fi  st  extend- 
ed to  Fortieth  Street  from  Fourteenth,  on  the  east  and 
west  sides.  The  region  between  Fortieth  and  Eighty-sixth 
Streets  was  next  made  the  Nineteenth  Ward;  in  1850  the 
Twentieth  Ward  was  made  by  cutting  the  Sixteenth  at 
Twenty-sixth  Street,  and  in  1853  the  Eighteenth  was  cut  at 
Twenty-sixth  Street  to  form  the  Twenty-first,  and  the 
Nineteenth  was  split  from  north  to  south  to  form  the  Twen- 
ty-second on  the  west  side.  After  the  southerly  line  of 
the  "Out  Waid"  had  thus  been  pushed  north  to  Eighty-sixth 
Street,  the  political  functions  of  the  ward  lines  by  degrees 
grew  obsolete,  and  no  more  divisions  were  made. 

In  1860  the  centre  of  gravity  of  the  population  of  Man- 
hattan Island  was  on  Eighteenth  Street,  half  way  between 
Broadway  and  Fifth  Avenue.  Between  1860  and  1870  it 
moved  five  blocks  north  to  the  corner  of  Twenty-third 
Street  and  Fourth  Avenue.  By  18b0  it  was  seven  blocks 
further  up  town,  on  Thirtieth  Street,  east  of  Madison  Ave- 
nue. During  the  next  ten  years  it  jumped  a  mile  to  the 
north,  to  Madison  Avenue  half  way  between  Fiftieth  and 
and  Fifty-seventh  Streets.  In  1860  the  island  above  EigLty- 
sixth  Street  contained  five  inhabitants  to  the  acre,  and  be- 
tween Fortieth  and  Eighty-sixth  Streets  about  thirty  inha- 
bitants to  the  acre.  The  west  half  Gf  this  section  was  twice 
as  thickly  settled  as  the  east.  Between  Fourteenth  and 
Fortieth  Streets  the  west  side  was  the  more  populous.  The 
Twentieth  Ward  (between  Twenty-sixth  and  Fortieth 
Streets  on  the  west)  had  152  inhabitants  to  t  he  acre, 
and  the  Twenty-first,  lying  on  the  east  side,  between  the 
same  streets,  had  119.  The  Mulberry  Bend  and  Five  Points 
Ward  (the  Sixth)  was  the  most  densely  populated,  with  310 
people  to  the  acre,  although  the  Eleventh  and  Thirteenth 
(between  Grand  and  Fourteenth  Streets,  the  Bowery,  and 
the  East  River)  had  each  over  300.  Next  came  the  Tenth, 
with  272,  the  Fourth,  with  264,  and  the  Seventeenth,  with 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


13 


220.  The  depopulation  of  the  dry-goods  district  was  well 
under  way,  for  the  Second  and  Third  Wards  contained  about 
thirty-five  inhabitants  to  the  acre,  although  the  First,  or 
all  the  island  below  Liberty  Street  and  Maiden  Lane.,  had 
117. 

The  fluctuation  of  population  in  the  First  Ward  is  curi- 
ous. By  1870  it  fell  to  03,  went  back  to  110  in  1380,  and 
in  1890  fell  to  72.  On  the  other  h?nd  the  density  of  the 
Twelfth  Ward  went  to  8  dwellers  per  acre  in  1870,  to  14  in 
1880,  and  44  in  1890.  In  the  region  between  Fortieth  and 
Eighty-sixth  Streets  the  east  side  has  grown  faster  than 
the  west.  The  density  of  the  Twenty-second  Ward  was  46 
in  1870,  73  in  1880,  and  100  in  1890;  while  its  neighbor  on 
the  east,  the  Nineteenth,  went  to  58  in  1870,  to  106  in  1880, 
and  152  in  1890.  Between  Fourteenth  and  Fortieth  Streets, 
however,  the  west  side  has  filled  up  more  rapidly.  The 
Hell's  Kitchen  Ward,  the  Twentieth,  went  to  169  per  acre 
in  1870,  to  193  in  1880,  and  fell  to  189  in  1890.  The  Eigh- 
teenth Ward,  on  the  east  side,  between  Fourteenth  and 
Twenty-sixth,  went  by  decades  to  132,  to  148,  to  140. 

Prosperity  among  the  Irish  and  migration  up  town  caused 
a  falling  off  in  the  Sixth  Ward  to  246  in  1870  and  233  in 
1880,  but  the  coming  of  the  Italians  brought  it  back  to  268 
in  1890. 

In  1870  the  population  had  gathered  most  densely  in  the 
Tenth,  Eleventh,  and  Thirteenth  Wards,  with  an  average 
of  350  to  the  acre,  in  that  part  of  the  city  bounded  by  the 
East  River,  Fourteenth  Street,  Avenue  B,  Rivington  Street, 
the  Bowery,  and  Division  and  Grand  Streets.  About  this 
was  a  region  of  sub-density,  composed  of  the  Fourth.  Sixth, 
Seventh,  Fourteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Wards,  where  the 
population  varied  from  226  to  288  per  acre. 

By  1880  the  Polack  arrived  and  pushed  the  Tenth  Ward 
to  a  bad  eminence  of  over  400  to  the  acre,  which  increased 
to  532  in  1890.  In  1880  the  overflow  from  the  Tenth  had 
spread  east  into  the  Thirteenth,  and  on  the  north  in  the  Ele- 
venth and  Seventeenth  to  Fourteenth  Street,  the  first  hav- 
ing 352  and  the  second  350  to  the  acre.  By  1890  the  over- 
flow to  the  Thirteenth  had  raised  its  density  to  430,  while 
the  Eleventh,  Fourteenth,  and  Seventeenth  Wards  lost  in 
density.  Between  1870  and  1890  the  region  of  sub-density  in 
the  Fourth,  Sixth,  and  Seventh  Wards  about  held  its  own. 


1 1 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


According  to  the  census  of  1890  the  most  thinly  settled 
part  of  the  inland  was  the  Second  Ward,  lying  between 
Broadway,  Maiden  Lane,  the  East  River,  and  Peck  Slip.  It 
had  eleven  inhabitants  to  the  acre.  Across  the  Harlem  the 
immense  Twenty-third  Ward  had  12  to  the  acre,  although 
the  Twenty-fourth  had  only  two. 


THE    BANKS    OF    NKW  YORK. 

At  the  adoption  of  the  federal  constitution  New  York  was 
a  city  of  24,000  inhabitants,  which  did  not  have  within  its 
limits  a  single  banking  institution.  In  the  colonial  days, 
indeed,  the  term  "bank"  was  commonly  used  to  designate 
the  financial  department  of  a  colony's  government  in  its 
capacity  as  issuer  of  paper  money.  Robert  Morris's  Bank 
of  North  America,  founded  at  Philadelphia  at  the  close 
of  17S1,  was  the  first  distinctive  banking  institution  char- 
tered on  this  continent,  and  the  Bank  of  New  York,  which 
broke  ground  in  New  York  city,  was  chartered  only  after 
a  ten-year  interval. 

Hamilton,  still  a  young  man  of  thirty-four,  but  under- 
taking even  then  the  reconstruction  of  American  national 
finance,  was  the  founder  of  this  institution.  In  the  decade 
after  1791  only  two  banks  had  been  added  in  New  York,  and 
one  of  these  was  established  as  a  political  manoeuvre.  To 
offset  Hamilton's  Bank  of  New  Yoik,his  bitter  enemy,  Aaron 
Burr,  undertook  to  establish  a  rival  institution.  He  lobbied 
through  the  Legislature  a  charter  originally  as  unlimited 
as  that  of  the  British  East  India  Company,  and  this  was 
the  origin  of  the  Bank  of  the  Manhattan  Company.  Even  th's 
institution  began  as  a  company  to  supply  water  to  the  city; 
its  active  work  in  banking  was  chiefly  an  afterthought. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  of  1812,  eight  banks  were 
in  operation  in  New  York;  of  the  banks  now  in  existence, 
the  Bank  of  America,  the  Mechanics'  Bank,  the  City  Bank, 
and  the  Phenix  Bank  were  chartered  during  or  immediate- 
ly before  that  year.  Despite  the  severe  financial  depres- 
sion during  the  ten  or  twelve  years  after  that  war,  the 
organization  of  New  York  banks  continued,  the  Chemical 
and  Tradesmen's  Banks  being  among  the  number  added  to 
the  list  at  that  period,  with  the  Dry  Dock  Bank,  which  en- 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


15 


joyed  a  short  but  prosperous  existence,  until  it  led  the  way 
for  the  general  banking  collapse  in  the  crash  of  1837.  It 
is  worth  noticing,  as  an  index  to  the  life  of  American  bank- 
ing institutions,  that  of  the  sixteen  banks  doing  business 
in  New  York  in  1830,  only  nine  survive  to-day;  one  of  the 
nine,  the  Delaware  and  Hudson  Canal  Company,  having 
virtually  withdrawn  from  the  field  of  banking. 

The  panic  of  1837  was  really  started  among  the  New 
York  banks,  which  had  been  liberally  favored  with  gov- 
ernment deposits  after  Jackson's  violent  withdrawal  of 
such  accounts  from  the  Bank  of  the  United  States.  The 
New  York  banks  had  not  led  in  the  wild  speculation  of  the 
period  in  Western  lands  and  prcduce,  but  they  had  backed 
up  many  of  the  mushroom  interior  institutions,  and  there- 
fore had  to  face  the  music  on  their  own  account  when  the 
government  suddenly  called  for  return  of  its  deposits  for 
transfer,  under  the  act  of  1836,  to  the  treasuries  of  the 
states. 

In  the  next  serious  panic — that  of  1857 — the  greatly  in- 
creased strength  of  the  New  York  institutions  was  plainly 
manifested.  The  storm  centre  of  that  year  was  not  in 
New  York,  but  in  Ohio.  In  1857,  indeed,  the  New  York 
city  banks  first  played  the  part  which  since  then  has  been 
regularly  expected  from  them:  to  sustain  by  use  of  their 
joint  resources  the  tottering  structure  of  American  credit. 
The  famous  system  of  clearing-house  loan  certificates,  a 
New  York  invention,  and  a  purely  American  institution, 
was  virtually  introduced  in  1857,  when  the  clearing-house 
issued  through  the  Metropolitan  Bank  certificates  of  credit 
to  other  state  banks  which  could  not  redeem  their  notes. 

The  action  of  the  New  York  banks  at  the  outbreak  of 
the  civil  war  was  less  creditable.  If  a  thoroughly  expe- 
rienced financier  had  been  at  the  head  of  the  national 
Treasury,  and  if  the  New  York  banks  had  been  under  the 
influence  of  the  men  who  controlled  their  united  policy  in 
1873  and  1893,  it  is  possible  that  suspension  of  specie  pay- 
ments might  have  been  warded  off.  But,  as  it  happened, 
the  New  York  banks  were  the  first  to  surrender,  and  their 
joint  resolution  of  December  30,  1861,  suspending  specie 
payments  on  their  own  account,  really  forced  the  hand  of 
the  government. 

When,  however,  the  question  of  resumption  of  specie 


16 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


payments  arose,  fifteen  years  later,  the  New  York  banks 
were  the  most  efficient  agents  of  the  government.  Under 
the  national  banking  system,  and  with  the  rapid  increase 
of  capital  and  population  after  the  civil  war,  the  number 
of  New  York  banks  had  been  greatly  enlarged;  without 
their  aid,  it  is  doubtful  if  resumption  in  1879  could  have 
been  achieved.  It  certainly  could  not  have  been  otherwise 
achieved  on  Secretary  Sherman's  plan,  which  was  assured 
of  success  only  when,  after  all  other  preliminaries  were 
completed,  the  United  States  Sub-Treasury  was  admitted  to 
the  privileges  of  the  New  York  clearing-house.  This  ar- 
rangement, with  the  voluntary  abolition  of  special  gold 
accounts  by  the  banks  in  December,  1878,  made  possible  the 
free  exchange  of  gold  and  United  States  notes  at  par 
between  the  Treasury  and  the  business  community. 

The  services  rendered  by  the  New  York  banks  to  the 
country  at  large  in  the  panics  of  1884,  of  1890,  and  of  1893, 
are  matters  of  recent  history.  The  management  of  the 
joint  resources  of  the  clearing-house'  banks,  four  years 
ago,bythe  specially  appointed  loan  committee — F.  D.  Tar  pen, 
J.  Edward  Simmons,  William  A.  Nash,  Henry  W.  Gannon, 
Edward  H.  Perkins,  jr.,  and  Geo.  G.  Williams — deserves 
a  place  in  the  literature  of  scientific  banking.  Their  ready 
return  of  deposited  reserves  to  embarrassed  interior  insti- 
tutions and  their  liberal  rediscounting  of  interior  paper, 
undoubtedly  saved  the  West  and  South  from  complete 
wreck  of  credit.  Their  prompt  use  of  the  loan-certificate 
device,  with  rates  on  loans  to  outsiders  properly 
fixed  at  a  high  figure,  sustained  the  local  business  com- 
munity. When,  in  the  worst  of  the  panic  months,  some  of 
the  city  banks  lost  heart  and  suspended  cash  payments 
to  depositors,  the  immediate  use  of  the  loan  certificates  by 
three  strong  institutions  to  furnish  sterling  credits  broke 
the  deadlock  in  foreign  exchange  and  filled  the  empty 
channels  of  domestic  trade  with  foreign  gold.  With  equal- 
ly competent  management,  and  with  the  experience  of  1893 
to  guide  them,  the  New  York  banks  will  possibly,  in  the 
next  emergency,  be  able,  like  the  Bank  of  England  in  1890, 
not  only  to  allay  panic,  but  tc  prevent  it. 

That  the  inhabitants  of  the  enlarged  city,  the  Greater 
New  York,  will  not  lack  banking  facilities  can  be  very 
easily  demonstrated.    Proportionately  they  will  be  better 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


17 


off  in  that  respect  possibly  than  the  people  of  the  old 
New  York  were  in  the  closing  days  of  the  last  century, 
when  the  Bank  of  New  York  and  the  Manhattan  Bank  were 
the  only  institutions  of  the  sort  in  existence.  In  those 
days,  and  for  some  time  afterwards,  the  banks  were  not 
"rushed"  as  they  are  now.  They  used  to  close  up  for  an 
hour  in  the  middle  of  the  day  for  dinner,  and  do  other 
things  which  would  seem  very  strange  to  the  people  of  the 
present  day.  During  the  cholera  scare  in  this  city 
early  in  the  present  century,  the  banks  moved  up  to  what 
was  then  called  Greenwich  village,  and  did  business  there 
until  the  disease  was  stamped  out.  It  was  in  that  way  that 
Bank  Street  got  its  name. 

To  illustrate  what  the  banking  facilities  of  the  Greater 
New  York  will  be  at  its  inauguration,  it  may  be  stated  that 
on  January  1,  1898,  according  to  the  latest  reports  available 
at  the  Clearing-house,  there  will  be  sixty-four  associated 
banks  in  this  city,  having  a  combined  capital  and  surplus 
amounting  to  $133,200,000,  with  deposits  aggregating  $669,- 
000,000,  leans  of  $610,000,000,  and  they  will  have  in  their 
vaults  a  cash  reserve  of  more  than  $100,000,000  of  gold  and 
$75,000,000  of  United  States  currency.  These  banks,  how- 
ever, will  only  represent  a  part  of  the  banking  facilities  of 
the  new  city.  Besides  the  associated  or  Clearing-house 
banks,  there  are  some  fifty  other  banks  in  this  city,  Brook- 
lyn, and  Long  Island  City,  whose  combined  capital  and  sur- 
plus is  $14,000,000,  and  which  have  deposits  aggregating 
more  than  $55,000,000,  and  whose  loans  exceed  $50,000,000. 
But  that  is  not  all.  In  addition  to  the  banks  there  are 
in  this  city  eighteen  trust  coirpsnies  that  also  do  a  banking 
business,  whose  capital  and  surplus  amount  to  more  than 
$60,000,000,  and  which  have  deposits  aggregating  more  than 
$250,000,000.  It  can  readily  be  seen,  therefore,  that  the 
residents  of  the  Greater  New  York  will  not  lack  banking 
facilities,  and  that  compared  to  their  predecessors  of  a 
century  ago,  or  even  of  half  a  century  ago,  they  will  be 
quite  well  off  in  that  respect.  Fifty  years  ago  there  was 
no  clearing-house  in  this  city,  and  a  few  words  about  that 
institution  will  not  be  inappropriate. 

Although  a  purely  voluntary  association,  that  is,  an 
institution  without  a  charter  of  any  sort,  and  unincorpo- 
rated, the  Clearing-house  Association  is  said  to  be  inhe- 


is 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


rently  the  strongest  financial  institution  in  the  world.  In 
it  are  combined  all  the  resources  of  the  New  York  banks, 
united  in  times  of  panic  as  one  bank,  and  practically,  as 
was  seen  as  recently  as  in  the  panic  of  1893,  the  represen- 
tative and  corner-stone  of  all  the  banks  of  the  United 
States.  The  New  York  Clearing-house  was  established 
October  11,  1853.  Twenty  years  before  that  Albert  Gallatin, 
the  founder  and  President  of  the  Gallatin  National  Bank, 
had,  with  the  foresight  for  which  he  was  famous,  pointed 
out  the  necessity  for  such  an  institution,  and  had  outlined 
the  plan  for  thus  easily  effecting  exchanges  between  the 
banks.  The  business  of  the  first  Clearing-house  was  car- 
ried on  at  No.  14  Wall  Street.  Afterwards  the  association 
moved  to  No.  82  Broadway,  about  the  site  of  the  present 
Union  Trust  building,  then  occupied  by  the  American  Ex- 
press Company.  From  there  the  association  migrated  to 
the  corner  of  Wall  and  William  Streets,  where  it  transact- 
ed business  on  the  upper  floor  of  the  building  of  the  Bank 
of  America.  In  1875  the  association  moved  to  its  own 
building  at  Pine  and  Nassau  Streets,  now  occupied  by  the 
new  building  of  the  Western  National  Bank.  It  remained 
there  until  it  moved  (January,  1896)  to  its  present  mag- 
nificent building  in  Cedar  Street,  which  is  conceded  to  be 
by  far  the  handsomest  clearing-house  building  in  the  world. 
In  all  those  forty-four  years  of  its  existence  there  have 
been,  including  the  present  one,  but  three  managers  of 
the  Clearing-house — George  D.  Lyman,  William  A.  Camp, 
and  William  Sherer.  There  is  now  also  an  assistant  ma- 
nager, William  J.  Gilpin. 

When  the  Clearing-house  Association  was  organized  it 
consisted  of  fifty-two  banks,  that  had  a  combined  capital 
and  surplus  of  $49,000,000,  and  deposits  aggregating  $39,- 
000,000.  Their  loans  were  $97,000,000,  and  their  cash  on 
hand  (gold)  amounted  to  $9,700,000.  There  were  no  gov- 
ernment notes  then.  The  banks  had  outstanding,  however, 
their  own  notes,  amounting  to  $9,500,000.  Compared  with 
the  present  day,  when  one  bank  in  the  association  (Na- 
tional City  Bank)  has  alone,  according  to  its  last  sworn  re- 
port, deposits  exceeding  $100,000,000,  those  figures  seem 
small;  but  they  were  then  considered  enormous,  and,  com- 
pared with  the  figures  of  fifty  years  prior  thereto,  when 
the  Bank  of  New  York  kept  its  accounts  in  pounds,  shil- 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


19 


lings,  and  pence,  and  a  day's  deposits  sometimes  amounted 
only  to  a  few  pounds  sterling,  they  undoubtedly  were  very 
large.  During  the  first  year  of  its  existence  the  total  clear- 
ings for  the  year  were  $5,750,455,987.06,  and  the  average 
daily  clearings  $19,140,504.94.  Now  the  daily  clearings  some- 
times approach  very  closely  to  the  $200,000,000  mark;  and 
prior  to  the  establishment  of  the  Stock  Exchange  clearing- 
house they  often  exceeded  that  sum,  one  day  reaching  as 
high  as  $288,555,981.58.  The  average  daily  clearings  for 
the  forty-four  years  of  the  association's  existence  have 
been  $84,127,115.69.  Besides  the  forty-five  national  banks 
and  nineteen  state  banks  composing  the  association,  and 
which  make  their  exchanges  at  the  clearing-house,  there 
are  seventy-seven  banks  and  trust  companies,  not  mem- 
bers,  which  make  their  exchanges  through  the  associated 
banks.  The  Assistant  United  States  Treasurer  at  New 
York  also  makes  exchange  at  the  clearing-house  with  the 
banks,  having  all  the  privileges  of  membership  without  re- 
sponsibility as  such.  Thomas  Tileston,  then  President  of 
the  Phenix  Bank,  was  the  first  chairman  of  the  Clearing- 
house. The  title  of  the  chief  executive  officer  has  since 
been  changed  to  President,  and  the  present  occupant  of  the 
office  is  J.  Edward  Simmons,  President  of  the  Fourth  Na- 
tional Bank.  The  present  Clearing-house  executive  com- 
mittee consists  of  Frederick  D.  Tappen,  President  of  the 
Gallatin  National  Bank,  chairman;  R.  M.  Galloway,  Presi- 
dent of  the  Merchants'  National  Bank;  William  A.  Nash, 
President  of  the  Corn  Exchange  Bank;  George  G.  Williams, 
President  of  the  Chemical  National  Bank,  and  James  Still- 
man,  President  of  the  National  City  Bank. 

What  the  banks  of  this  city  have  done  for  the  country 
in  times  of  panic  and  other  emergencies,  notably  during 
the  war  of  the  Rebellion,  has  already  been  pointed  out. 
Naturally,  by  reason  of  their  enforced  relations  with  the 
United  States  Treasury,  the  banks  are  always  in  close 
touch  with  the  financial  interests  of  the  government;  but 
in  addition  to  that,  they  may  be  said  to  have  had  a  close 
personal  connection  with  the  government  from  the  time  of 
Alexander  Hamilton  to  the  present.  Albert  Gallatin  was 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury  under  Presidents  Jefferson  and 
Madison;  a  Chicago  bank  president  is  now  Secretary  of  the 
Treasury  (New  York  bankers  were  largely  instrumental  in 


20 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


his  being  selected  for  the  office),  and  a  New  York  bank 
director,  Cornelius  N.  Bliss,  is  Secretary  of  the  Interior. 
Other  instances  might  be  cited.  In  addition  to  these  con- 
nections with  the  government,  it  is  also  notable  that  many- 
former  Treasury  officials  are  now  at  the  head  of  large 
financial  institutions  in  this  city.  Henry  W.  Cannon,  ex- 
Comptroller  of  the  Currency,  is  President  of  the  Chase  Na- 
tional Bank.  A.  B.  Hepburn,  another  ex-Comptroller  of 
the  Currency,  is  Vice-President  of  the  National  City  Bank. 
William  L.  Trenholm,  still  another  ex-Comptroller  of  the 
Currency,  is  President  of  the  American  Surety  Company. 
John  Jay  Knox,  for  twelve  years  Comptroller  of  the  Cur- 
rency, was  President  of  the  Bank  of  the  Republic.  E.  O. 
Leech,  formerly  Director  of  the  Mint,  is  cashier  of  the  Na- 
tional Union  Bank.  Thomas  "L.  James,  formerly  Postmas- 
ter-General, is  President  of  the  Lincoln  National  Bank. 
Oliver  Wolcott,  an  ex-Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  was  the 
first  President  of  the  Bank  of  America,  and  also  of  the 
Merchants'  Bank.  William  Sherer,  manager  of  the  Clear- 
ing-house, was  for  many  years  cashier  of  the  United  States 
Sub-Treasury  in  this  city.  On  the  other  hand,  Conrad  N. 
Jordan,  the  Assistant  United  States  Treasurer,  and  former- 
ly Treasurer  of  the  United  States,  was  formerly  President 
of  the  Western  National  Bank,  and  that  naturally  leads  one 
to  remark  that  the  founder  of  that  bank,  and  its  first 
President,  Daniel  Manning,  was  President  Cleveland's  first 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  The  present  Treasurer  of  the 
United  States,  Ellis  H.  Roberts,  was  the  first  President  of 
the  Franklin  National  Bank  of  this  city.  Thus  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  there  is  continually  a  close  personal 
association  of  interests  in  banking  and  government  circles, 
so  far  as  the  financial  relations  of  the  latter  are  concerned, 
and  particularly  so  in  this  city,  as  the  chief  financial  centre 
of  the  country. 

The  history  of  many  of  the  older  banks  of  this  city  is 
extremely  interesting,  but  in  a  brief  article  of  this  charac- 
ter it  is  impossible  to  do  more  than  allude  to  some  of  the 
principal  facts  in  connection  therewith.  To  a  great  extent, 
however,  it  may  be  said  that  the  history  of  the  banks  is 
the  history  of  their  founders  or  managers,  the  financial 
magnates  of  the  time,  who  have  left  their  mark  on  the 
history  of  this  city,  and  whose  portraits  now  adorn  the 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


21 


walls  of  the  Chamber  of  Commerce  or  the  hall  of  the  Clear- 
ing-house. The  Bank  of  New  York,  founded  by  Alexan- 
der Hamilton  in  1784,  is  the  second  oldest  bank  in  the 
country.  The  Bank  of  North  America  at  Philadelphia  was 
organized  in  1781.  The  Massachusetts  Bank  of  Boston  was 
organized  the  same  year  as  the  Bank  of  New  York,  and 
these  three  banks  have  acted  as  each  other's  correspond- 
ents for  more  than  half  a  century.  The  Bank  of  New  York 
has  occupied  its  present  site  at  Wall  and  William  Streets 
for  more  than  a  century.  Gen.  Alexander  McDougall  was 
its  first  President.  The  bank  prides  itself  on  never  having 
passed  a  dividend  except  once,  and  that  was  in  1837,  when 
it  was  compelled  by  law  to  do  so.  The  next  year,  however, 
it  paid  a  double  one,  and  so  maintained  its  record.  When 
the  banks  were  admitted  into  the  Clearing-house  Associa- 
tion upon  its  organization  they  were  placed  according  to 
iheir  age,  and  numbered  accordingly.  Thus  the  Bank  of 
New  York  stands  first  on  the  list.  The  history  of  the  Bank 
of  the  Manhattan  Company  is  well  known.  It  supplied 
water  to  the  city  for  years  as  well  as  doing  a  banking 
business  under  the  charter  procured  for  it  by  Aaron  Burr. 
It  still  maintains  under  the  provision  of  its  charter  a  huge 
water-tank  near  Centre  Street,  and  its  old  wooden  mains 
are  still  occasionally  unearthed.  With  the  exception  of 
these  two  banks — the  Bank  of  New  York  and  the  Bank  of 
the  Manhattan  Company — and  a  branch  of  the  United 
States  Bank,  all  the  other  banks  that  followed  them  were 
organized  after  the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  The 
Merchants'  Bank  was  organized  in  1805,  the  Mechanics'  in 
1810,  the  Bank  of  America,  the  Phenix  Bank,  and  the  City 
Bank  in  1812,  the  Tradesmen's  in  1823,  the  Chemical  in 
1824,  the  Merchants'  Exchange  Bank  in  1828,  the  Gallatin 
(then  known  as  the  National)  in  1829,  the  Butchers'  and 
Drovers',  the  Mechanics'  and  Traders',  and  the  Greenwich 
in  1830,  the  Leather  Manufacturers'  in  1832,  the  Seventh 
Ward  (now  Seventh  National)  in  1833,  and  the  Bank  of  the 
State  in  1836.  The  American  Exchange  National  Bank  was 
organized  in  1838,  the  Bank  of  Commerce  in  1839,  and  the 
Broadway  and  the  Mercantile  Bank  in  1849,  and  the  Pacific 
Bank  in  1850.  The  remainder  were  organized  subsequent 
to  1850,  and  many  of  those  also  have  interesting  histories. 
The  oldest  three  bank  presidents  in  active  service  to- 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


day  are  Francis  A.  Palmer  of  the  Broadway  Bank,  the  old- 
est in  point  of  age;  George  G.  Williams  of  the  Chemical 
Bank,  and  Frederick  D.  Tappen  of  the  Gallatin  Bank.  The 
last  named  is  the  oldest  bank  president  in  point  of  ser- 
vice. He  entered  the  Gallatin  Bank  a  junior  clerk  in  1850 
(he  was  born  the  year  the  bank  was  organized),  and  rose 
through  every  grade  to  that  of  President,  to  which  office  he 
was  appointed  in  1868.  The  bank  has  only  had  two  other 
presidents  during  the  whole  of  its  existence — Albert  Gal- 
latin, 1829-1838,  and  James  Gallatin,  his  son,  1838-1868.  Mr. 
Tappen  was  appointed  cashier  on  the  night  of  the  suspen- 
sion of  specie  payments  in  1857.  An  interesting  story  is 
told  of  the  Gallatin  Bank's  first  President.  It  was  after 
the  panic  of  1836.  The  banks  held  a  meeting  to  discuss 
when  they  should  resume  specie  payments.  A  motion  was 
offered  to  resume  after  certain  notice  had  been  given.  Al- 
bert Gallatin  moved  as  an  amendment  that  the  banks 
should  "resume  to-morrow."  The  amendment  was  carried, 
and  the  banks  resumed  specie  payment  on  the  morrow 
without  trouble. 

George  G.  Williams,  President  of  the  Chemical  Bank, 
has  had  a  banking  experience  of  more  than  fifty  years.  He 
entered  the  service  of  the  bank  as  junior  clerk  in  1841  and 
lias  been  its  President  since  1878.  He  is  regarded  as  the 
Nestor  of  the  New  York  bank  presidents,  although  Mr. 
Tappen  is  his  senior  in  point  of  service  as  President.  The 
Chemical  Bank  was  started  as  a  chemical  manufacturing 
company,  but  in  many  respects  it  is  regarded  as  the  most 
famous  bank  in  the  country.  It  has  a  capital  of  only  $300,- 
000,  but  its  surplus  is  more  than  $7,000,000,  and  its  $100 
shares  sell  for  nearly  $5,000  each.  Its  first  office  was  on 
the  present  site  of  the  National  Park  Bank,  opposite  St. 
Paul's  Chapel,  but  in  1850  it  moved  to  its  present  building. 

Naturally,  many  of  the  banks  of  the  city  have  had  more 
or  less  connection,  direct  or  indirect,  with  municipal  mat- 
ters through  their  officers  or  in  some  other  way.  Thus  the 
first  President  of  the  Fourth  National  Bank  was  George 
Opdyke,  who  was  the  first  Republican  Mayor  of  this  city. 
A  son  of  his,  William  S.  Opdyke,  a  well-known  lawyer,  is 
a  director  of  the  same  bank.  The  only  other  Republican 
Mayor  this  city  has  ever  had,  and  the  last  Mayor  the  pre- 
sent New  York  city  will  have,  is  the  present  occupant  of 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


2?> 


the  office,- William  L.  Strong,  and  he  was  President  of  the 
Central  National  Bank  until  he  entered  on  his  duties  as 
Mayor.  The  Seventh  National  Bank  (formerly  Seventh 
Ward  Bank),  organized  in  1833,  has  had  three  directors 
who  were  Mayors  of  this  city,  as  well  as  some  who  were 
on  the  bench.  This  bank  has  two  depositors  who  have 
kept  accounts  with  it  continuously  since  1845,  and  framed 
in  the  President's  office  is  the  first  pass-book  belonging  to 
one  of  them,  as  well  as  the  first  check  drawn  by  him. 

One  of  the  interesting  facts  in  connection  with  the  his- 
tory of  New  York  banks  and  the  Clearing-house  was  the 
refusal  of  the  latter  to  admit  national  banks  to  membership 
in  the  Clearing-House  Association  when  they  were  first  or- 
ganized, under  the  national  banking  law  in  1853,  because 
they  were  regarded  as  dangerous  institutions.  The  First 
National  Bank  was  refused  admission  at  first,  but  the 
Clearing-house  Association  subsequently  rescinded  its  ac- 
tion, and  nearly  all  the  other  banks  then  took  out  charters 
under  the  national  banking  act,  many  of  them  being  al- 
lowed to  retain  their  old  names,  instead  of  losing  their 
identity  by  being  designated  by  number.  The  opposition, 
however,  at  first  to  the  national  banking  law  and  the  banks 
organized  thereunder  was  very  fierce.  One  of  the  most 
cherished  documents  in  the  archives  of  the  Chase  National 
Bank,  preserved  by  President  Henry  W.  Cannon,  is  a  copy 
of  a  long  printed  circular,  urging  the  associated  banks  to 
stand  together  for  their  own  protection  and  the  protection 
of  the  property  confided  to  their  care,  "in  many  cases  the 
all  of  women,  children,  the  infirm,  and  those  who  look  to 
us  as  their  only  means  of  support,  .  .  .  and  sound  the 
alarm  ere  it  is  too  late.  Let  the  associated  banks  in  the 
three  great  cities  of  New  York,  Philadelphia,  and  Boston 
decline  all  recognition  of  these  institutions,  directly  or  indi- 
cretly,  in  their  exchanges,  and  let  them  at  once,  at  what- 
ever expense,  return  the  notes  that  they  are  compelled  to 
receive  from  the  government  to  their  respective  points  of 
issue  for  redemption.  In  so  doing,  you  will  keep  the  heart 
of  the  currency  at  the  great  city  centres  unscathed  and 
whole."  Endorsed  on  this  circular  in  the  handwriting  of 
John  Thompson,  the  founder  of  the  Chase  National  Bank 
and  its  second  President,  is  this  memorandum: 

"This  paper,  sent  out  by  the  then  President  of  the  Mer- 


21 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


chants'  Bank,  was  followed  by  a  resolution  of  the  Clearing- 
house binding  its  members  to  treat  as  uncurrent  money  all 
national-bank  notes  and  to  refuse  to  exchange  with  national 
banks.  Thompson's  bank  was  the  only  one  open  at  that 
time." 

The  Thompson's  Bank  referred  to  in  the  memorandum 
was  the  First  National  Bank,  which  was  organized  by  John 
Thompson.  He  subsequently  sold  out  his  interest  in  that 
bank,  and  later,  in  1877,  organized  the  Chase  National  Bank. 
His  son,  Samuel  Thompson,  was  its  first  President.  When 
he  died  his  father  took  the  presidency  for  a  year,  and  was 
then  succeeded,  in  1886,  by  Henry  W.  Cannon,  ex-Comp- 
troller of  the  Currency,  the  present  President  of  the  bank. 

That  history  repeats  itself  in  banking  as  well  as  in  other 
affairs  of  life  is  a  matter  of  course.  An  illustration  of  the 
truth  of  this  is  seen  in  the  fact,  that  as  far  back  as  1858  the 
associated  banks  made  efforts  to  prevent  the  payment  of  in- 
terest on  deposits.  An  adjourned  meeting  of  bank  officers 
was  held  at  the  Clearing-house,  March  15  in  that  year,  for 
that  purpose,  when  Mr.  Gallatin  presented  a  report  from  a 
committee,  in  which  they  pointed  out  the  many  evils  pro- 
duced by  the  baneful  practice  of  allowing  interest  on  cur- 
rent deposits,  and  which  "were  made  manifest  during  the 
late  monetary  and  commercial  pressure."  As  a  result  of 
the  movement,  forty  of  the  forty-six  banks  in  the  associa- 
tion, it  seems,  had  agreed  not  to  allow  any  interest  on  such 
deposits  directly  or  indirectly,  but  the  Bank  of  Commerce, 
the  Bank  of  the  State,  and  the  Mercantile  Bank  declined 
to  unite  in  any  such  agreement,  and  the  Nassau  and  St. 
Nicholas  Banks  would  only  do  so  provided  all  would  sign 
the  proposed  agreement.  Notwithstanding  the  failure  of 
the  six  banks  to  unite  on  the  agreement,  the  other  forty 
banks  agreed  to  carry  out  the  arrangement  not  to  allow 
any  interest  on  any  current  deposits,  as  though  all  the 
banks  had  agreed  to  do  so,  and  a  committee  of  five  was 
appointed  to  observe  the  practical  operation  and  effects  of 
the  action  taken,  and  report  as  occasion  required.  The 
committee  appointed  comprised  William  A.  Bcoth,  William 
F.  Havemeyer,  J.  L.  Everitt,  J.  T.  Soutter,  and  William  S. 
Hooker.  In  connection  with  this  subject,  it  is  interesting 
to  note  that  two  of  the  banks  represented  at  that  meeting, 
the  Chemical  National  Bank  and  the  American  Exchange 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


25 


National  Bank,  of  which  Mr.  Booth  was  then  President, 
have  never  paid  interest  on  current  deposits,  and  one  or 
two  other  banks  have  only  done  so  recently. 

SUB-TREASURY  AND  ASSAY  OFFICE. 

An  article  on  the  banking  facilities  of  this  city  would 
scarcely  be  complete  without  some  mention  of  the  two  gov- 
ernment institutions  with  which  they  have  very  intimate 
relations,  namely,  the  United  States  Sub-Treasury  and  the 
United  States  Assay  Office.  The  Sub-Treasury  was  opened 
here  in  1846.  It  handles  fully  two-thirds  of  all  the  business 
done  by  the  Treasury  and  the  nine  sub-treasuries,  amount- 
ing to  nearly  four  thousand  million  dollars  per  anaum.  The 
cash  balance  at  the  New  York  Sub-Treasury  now  fre- 
quently exceeds  $200,000,000.  The  cash  balance  in  the 
fifties  was  about  $3,500,000  only!  The  first  entry  on  the  books 
of  the  Sub-Trer.sury  was  a  credit  to  Lieut.  W.  S.  Rosacrans 
as  a  government  disbursing  officar.  The  Su  D-Tre:sury  fi  st 
did  business  in  the  building  formerly  occupied  by  the 
branch  of  the  United  States  National  Bank,  now  the  site  of 
the  Assay  Office.  The  first  Assistant  Treasurer  was  W.  C. 
Bouck,  formerly  Governor  of  the  state.  In  1863  the  office 
was  removed  to  the  present  building,  the  site  of  old  Fedaral 
Hall,  in  which  the  first  Congress  of  the  United  States  met, 
and  in  which  Washington  was  inaugurated  as  the  first  Pre- 
sident of  the  United  States.  The  present  building  was  first 
erected  for  a  custom-house.  The  successors  of  Mr.  Bouck 
as  Assistant  United  States  Treasurer  were  John  Young, 
Luther  Bradish,  John  A.  Dix,  John  J.  Cisco,  John  A.  Stew- 
art (now  President  of  the  United  States  Trust  Company), 
Henry  H.  Van  Dyke,  Daniel  Butterfield,  Charles  J.  Folger, 
Thomas  Hillhouse,  Thomas  C.  Acton,  Charles  J.  Canda, 
Alexander  McCue,  Ellis  H.  Roberts,  and  Conrad  N.  Jordan. 
The  Cashiers  and  Deputy  Assistant  Treasurers  have  been 
Jacob  Russell,  William  H.  Ferris,  William  G.  White.  Walter 
J.  Brittin,  Joseph  M.  Floyd,  WTilliam  Sherer,  and  the  pre- 
sent incumbent,  Maurice  L.  Muhleman. 

The  United  States  Assay  Office,  a  branch  of  the  United 
States  Mint,  adjoining  the  Sub-Treasury,  was  established 
in  1853.  To  the  Assay  Office  the  banks  and  bankers  take 
their  gold  bullion  to  be  coined,  receiving  pay  for  it  at  the 
Sub-Treasury.    There  the  exporters  of  gold  also  buy  gold 


26 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


bullion  for  shipment  when  it  is  not  convenient  to  export 
coin.  There  also  the  jewellers  buy  such  gold  as  they  re- 
quire for  use  in  the  arts.  The  first  assayer  was  Dr.  John 
Torrey,  the  famous  botanist  and  chemist.  Andrew  Mason, 
the  present  Superintendent  of  the  Assay  Office,  has  filled 
that  place  since  1883,  and  has  been  connected  with  the 
office  ever  since  its  establishment.  The  total  deposits  of 
gold  in  the  Assay  Office  since  its  establishment  exceed 
one  thousand  million  dollars. 

TRUST  COMPANIES. 
The  trust  companies  of  New  York  constitute  one  of  the 
most  important  financial  features  of  the  Greater  New  Yo:k. 
Most  of  them  do  a  banking  business,  and  they  are  inti- 
mately connected  with  the  banks  and  insurance  compa- 
nies. It  is  sometimes  said  that  the  trust  companies  con- 
trol virtually  many  of  the  banks.  It  is  certain  that  some 
of  the  newer  ones  are  owned  and  controlled  by  the  larger 
insurance  companies.  All  of  them  work  in  unison  with 
the  banks,  even  though  competing  for  the  same  business. 
Like  the  banks,  the  older  ones  were  organized  under  spe- 
cial charters  until  1877.  Since  then  the  new  ones  have 
been  organized  under  the  general  state  banking  law.  They 
enjoy  many  privileges  over  the  banks.  Probably  the  old- 
est trust  company  is  the  New  York  Life  Insurance  and 
Trust  Company.  Next  in  point  of  age  is  the  United  States 
Trust  Company,  which  was  organized  in  1853,  with  Joseph 
Lawrence  as  its  first  President  and  John  A.  Stewart  as 
its  first  Secretary.  Mr.  Stewart  has  been  its  President 
since  1866,  having  been  continuously  in  the  employ  of 
the  company  'since  its  organization,  except  for  a  brief 
period,  when  he  was  Assistant  United  States  Treasurer  in 
this  city.  The  Union  Trust  Company  was  organized  in 
1864.  It  was  the  failure  of  a  trust  company,  the  Ohio 
Life  and  Trust  Company,  which  precipitated  the  panic  of 
1857.  With  that  exception,  the  New  York  trust  companies 
have  been  uniformly  among  the  most  successful  of  New 
York's  financial  institutions. 

SAVINGS  BANKS. 
The  banks  of  the  poor  people  are  said  to  be  the  savings 
banks,  but  their  depositors  are  by  no  means  confined  to 
the  poor  people,  as  the  magnitude  of  their  deposits  clearly 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


27 


shows.  The  savings  banks  of  the  state  of  New  York  are 
conceded  to  be  the  safest  in  the  country.  Savings  banks 
in  this  country  date  from  1816,  and  the  oldest  of  them  was 
organized  in  Philadelphia  in  that  year.  Massachusetts  came 
next  with  one  in  1816,  and  Maryland  followed  suit  in  1818. 
The  oldest  one  in  this  city  is  the  Bank  for  Savings,  1819. 
Its  oldest  trustee  in  point  of  service  is  Frederick  D.  Tap- 
pen,  President  of  the  Gallatin  National  Bank.  The  Sea- 
men's Bank  for  Savings  was  founded  in  1829,  the  Bowery 
Savings  Bank  in  1834,  the  Institutions  for  the  Savings  of 
Merchants'  Clerks  in  1848,  the  Dry  Dock  Savings  Institu- 
tion in  1848,  and  the  Emigrant  Industrial  Savings  Bank  in 
1850.  There  are  nearly  900,000  depositors  in  the  New  York 
savings  banks,  and  their  deposits  aggregate  nearly  $10  000  - 
000,  with  resources  of  about  $50,000,000  in  excess  of  that 
amount,  to  say  nothing  of  the  savings  banks  of  Brooklyn 
and  other  parts  of  the  Greater  New  York,  as  aa  illustra- 
tion of  the  primitive  methods  prevailing  during  the  early 
days  of  the  oldest  savings  banks  in  this  city,  Mr.  Tappen 
said  recently  that  on  the  nights  the  Bank  for  Savings  was 
open  for  business  the  Treasurer  used  to  carry  the  deposits 
home  in  a  little  hair-covered  trunk,  the  bank  then  not 
owning  a  safe.  That  trunk  is  now  one  of  the  bank's  most 
prized  possessions. 

The  Greenwich  Savings  Bank,  of  which  John  Harsen 
Rhoades  is  President,  had  its  first  home  at  No.  10  Carmine 
Street,  in  Greenwich  village,  whence  it  moved  to  Sixth 
Avenue  and  Fourth  Street;  thence  to  Sixth  Avenue  and 
"Waverly  Place,  and  finally  to  the  handsome  substantial 
granite  structure  built  for  it  at  Sixth  Avenue  and  Sixteenth 
Street.  The  trustees  of  the  bank  comprise  several  of  the 
best-known  men  in  this  city.  The  Bowery  Savings  Bank 
has  more  than  118,000  depositors,  and  the  largest  amount 
of  assets  of  any  savings  bank  in  the  country.  Its  surplus 
exceeds  $6,000,000.  John  P.  Townsend,  for  many  years 
Vice-President  of  the  bank,  is  the  President,  and  the  board 
of  trustees  comprises  a  large  number  of  thoroughly  repre- 
sentative men. 

FOREIGN  BANKERS. 
All  the  banking  facilities  of  this  city  are  not  confined 
by  any  means  to  the  national  and  state  banks.    A  very  im- 
portant part  is  taken  in  the  financial  business,  not  alone 


28 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


of  this  city,  but  of  the  country  at  large,  by  the  so-called 
foreign  bankers.  These  are  for  the  most  part  European 
bankers  with  American  agencies  in  this  city,  or  American 
bankers  with  European  branches  and  connection.  There 
are  also  the  branches  of  the  Canadian  banks,  which,  like  the 
other  foreign  bankers,  do  a  regular  foreign  exchange  busi- 
ness. Some  national  banks,  such  as  the  City  Bank,  the 
Hanover,  the  Park,  and  Produce  Exchange  Bank,  also  do 
a  large  foreign  exchange  business;  but,  as  a  rule,  that 
class  of  business  is  largely  monopolized  by  the  so-called 
foreign  bankers.  But  it  is  not  so  much  in  the  conduct  of 
a  mere  exchange  business  that  the  foreign  bankers  have 
taken  a  notable  part  of  late.  That,  to  a  certain  extent, 
may  be  said  to  regulate  itself  undsr  normal  conditions,  but 
it  has  been  in  the  control  and  manipulation  of  the  foreign 
exchange  market  in  times  of  panic,  as  in  1895,  when,  under 
the  contract  with  the  United  States  Treasurer,  a  syndicate 
of  them  undertook  to  protect  the  Treasury  reserve  by  pre- 
venting gold  exports,  that  the  foreign  bankers  have  per- 
formed the  most  conspicuous  service  in  the  pursuit  of  their 
calling.  Another  important  part,  too,  played  by  them,  has 
been  the  financing  of  big  railroad  reorganization  plans, 
involving  the  use  of  much  foreign  capital,  the  latest  in- 
stance  of  which  is  the  Union  Pacific  reorganization,  involv- 
ing the  transfer  of  $100,000,000  of  securities  and  the  pay- 
ment to  the  government  of  nearly  $60,000,000  in  cash,  all 
of  which,  it  may  well  be  said,  has  been  successfully  carried 
out  without  the  slightest  disturbance  of  the  world's  money 
markets.  In  fact,  it  may  be  accepted  as  a  fact  that  no  big 
financial  plan  is  now  ever  undertaken  or  carried  out  with- 
out the  aid  of  the  foreign  bankers. 


CHRONOLOGY  OF  NEW  YOKE. 

1609.  September  3 — Capt.  Henry  Hudson  arrived  at  Sandy 
Hook,  sending  a  boat  to  Coney  Island,  discovered  the 
Narrows,  and  landed  on  Manhattan  Island  later. 

Oct.  4 — Put  to  sea  again,  driven  away  by  the  Indians. 

1610.  Dutch  West  India  Co.  sent  a  ship  to  Hudson  River 
for  trading;  built  forts. 

1612.  There  existed  in  this  year  a  town  and  fort  on  York 
Island. 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


29 


1614.  Expedition  from  South  Virginia,  under  Capt.  Argal, 
took  possession  of  New  Amsterdam,  consisting  of  four 
houses,  outside  the  fort.  Arrangements  made  with  Eng- 
lish government  whereby  the  Dutch  remained  in  pos- 
session. 

1620.  June — West  India  Company  of  Holland  was  estab- 
lished, with  exclusive  privilege  to  trade  to  the  western 
coast  of  Africa  and  eastern  shores  of  America  from 
Newfoundland  to  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  Applied  for 
permission  of  King  James  I.  to  build  cottages  on  the 
Hudson. 

1621.  The  States  General  made  a  grant  of  the  New  Nether- 
lands to  the  West  India  Company,  who  paid  for  the  pro- 
viace  of  New  Netherlands  412,800  guilders  11  stivers. 

1623.  Dutch  obtained  leave  of  natives  to  build  a  better  fort 
on  Manhattan  Island.  Around  this  fort  houses  sprang 
up,  making  the  first  street,  now  called  Pearl  Street. 

1629.  Wouter  Van  Twiller  appointed  Governor;  arrived  in 
June,  and  began  to  grant  lands  in  the  subsequent  year. 

1630  Michael  Paw,  a  Dutch  subject,  on  August  10,  bought 
Staten  Island  from  the  Indians. 

1632.  Western  end  of  Long  Island  began  to  be  settled  by 
the  Dutch. 

1634.  West  India  Company  failed. 

1635.  Fort  Amsterdam  erected  by  Gov.  Twiller. 

1636.  Land  about  Harlaem  purchased  of  the  Indians. 

1638.  William  Kieft  appointed  Governor,  and  arrived 
March  28. 

Interest  on  money  16  per  cent. 

1639.  The  English  settled  at  Oyster  Bay.  Kieft  attacked 
them  and  drove  them  off.  The  hire  of  a  servant  was  £8 
a  year. 

1640.  April  30 — A  tidal  wave,  twelve  feet  above  the  ordi- 
nary tides,  inundated  New  Amsterdam,  and  the  people 
had  to  camp  in  the  woods  for  three  days. 

1642.  First  church  erected  within  the  fort  at  Bowling 
Green. 

Great  battle  between  Dutch  and  Indians. 

First  city  hall  erected,  corner  Pearl  Street  and  Coenties 

Slip. 

1647.  May  11 — Gov.  Stuyvesant,  the  last  Governor  under 
Dutch  rule,  arrived. 


no 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


1051.    The  Bowery  purchased  for  6,400  guilders. 
1G52.    First  public  school  established  in  city  hall. 

1653.  The  village  became  the  city  of  Amsterdam.  Public 
weigh-house  erected,  and  also  the  great  wall  along  what 
is  now  Wall  Street. 

June  6 — West  India  Company  at  Amsterdam  granted 
liberty  to  merchants  to  bring  slaves  from  Africa  to  this 
country. 

1654.  Westchester  County  purchased  of  the  Indians  by 
Thomas  Pell;  the  Dutch  protested  against  this,  and 
drove  the  settlers  from  the  land. 

1656.  Market-house  built,  corner  Pearl  and  Broad  Streets. 
In  this  year  the  city  had  112  houses  and  1,000  souls. 

1657.  The  whole  of  Staten  Island  (the  former  purchase 
price  not  having  been  paid)  was  sold  to  the  Dutch  by 
the  Indians  for  10  shirts,  30  stockings,  10  guns,  30  bars 
lead,  30  pounds  powder,  12  coats,  2  pieces  of  duffil,  30 
kettles,  50  hatchets,  25  hoes,  and  a  number  of  knives. 
In  1670  the  Indians  demanded  and  received  additional 
payment  in  wampum,  guns,  and  axes. 

1C58.    First  public  wharf  built  near  Whitehall. 

1C60.    First  map  of  city  sent  to  Holland  by  Gov.  Stuyvesant. 

1664.  August  27 — Col.  Nichols,  Governor  of  New  York  and 
New  Jersey,  arrived  with  four  frigates  and  300  soldiers 
from  England  and  captured  the  city. 

1665.  Thomas  Willett,  first  Mayor. 

January  15 — Nichols  confiscated  all  the  property  of  West 
India  Comapny. 

June     12 — Proclamation    changing   government  from 
Sellout,  Burgomaster,  and  Schepen  to  Mayor,  Alderman, 
and  Sheriff  (Sheriff,  Allard  Anthony). 
October  12 — John  Shute  licensed  schoolmaster  to  teach 
English  to  the  Dutch. 
1.666.    Thomas  Delavall,  Mayor. 

1667.  Thomas   Willett,    Mayor;    second  term. 

1668.  Cornelius  Steenwyck,  Mayor.  In  September  a  fast 
day  was  appointed  on  account  of  great  sickness  and 
mortality.  The  construction  of  a  wagon  road  to  Har- 
laem  was  ordered. 

1669.  Races  instituted  at  Hempstead.  Catharine  Harrison 
tried  for  witchcraft. 

1671.  Thomas  Delavall,  Mayor;  second  term. 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


31 


1672.  Matthias  Nicolls,  Mayor. 

1673.  John  Lawrence,  Mayor.  Post  to  Boston  established 
once  every  three  weeks. 

June  24 — Council  ordered  that  six  white  and  three  black 
wampums  (sea-shells)  should  pass  for  a  penny,  and 
three  times  as  much  should  stand  for  the  value  of  the 
smallest  silver  coin.  In  July  the  Dutch  retook  the  city 
and  Antonio  Colve  was  appointed  Governor. 

1674.  New  York  restored  to  the  English. 

November  9 — Edicts  confirming  all  grants  heretofore 
made  by  the  Dutch. 

1675.  William  Dervall,  Mayor.  Streets  ordered  cleaned 
every  Saturday. 

1676.  Nicholas  De  Meyer,  Mayor.  Law  passed  to  pave 
streets. 

1677.  Stephanus  Van  Courtlandt,  Mayor.  In  Council,  que- 
ried: Whether  attorneys  are  thought  useful  to  plead  as 
courts  or  not?    Answer:     It  is  thought  not. 

1678.  Thomas  Delavall,  Mayor;   third  term. 

1679.  Francois  Rombouts,  Mayor.  A  full-grown  negro 
valued  at  £42  10s. 

1680.  William  Dyre,  Mayor. 

1682.  Cornelius  Steenwyck,  Mayor;  second  term, 

1683.  First  House  of  Representatives  convened. 
January  15 — First  Recorder  appointed. 
October  14 — Annual  election  day. 

1684.  Gabriel  Minvielle,  Mayor.  First  Latin  school  opened. 

1685.  Nicholas  Bayard,  Mayor.  Assessed  valuation  £75,- 
694.    Jews  petition  to  exercise  their  religion. 

1686.  Stephanus  Van  Courtlandt,  Mayor;  second  term. 
James  II.  abolished  representative  system,  and  forbade 
use  of  printing-presses.  The  city  paid  the  Governor 
£300  for  the  charter,  and  borrowed  the  money  therefor 
at  10  per  cent,  interest. 

September  13 — Public  wells  ordered  built. 
December  23 — Chimney-sweepers  appointed. 
February  24— 1686-S7,  city  debt  £565  10s.  2y2d. 

1688.  November  2— Assessed  valuation  £78,231. 

1689.  Pieter  Delanoy,  Mayor. 

1690.  Meeting  of  commissioners  from  several  colonies  ot 
New  York. 


32 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


1C91.  John  Lawrence,  Mayor;  second  term.  Provincial 
laws  begun. 

April  9 — First  General  Assembly  convened  at  New  York. 
Water  lots  sold  at  one  shilling  a  foot. 
1692.    Abraham  De  Peyster,  Mayor. 

1C93.    Spuyten  Duyvil  Creek  bridge  built.    First  pavement 

laid  in  Wall  Street. 
1694.    Charles  Lodewick,  Mayor. 

1095.    William  Merritt,   Mayor.    Swine  running  at  large 

ordered  shot. 
1696.    Trinity  Church  built. 

1C97.    Ordered  that  a  new  city  hall  be  built,  to  cost  £3,000. 

1698.  Johannes  De  Peyster,  Mayor. 

1699.  Old  city  hall  sold  at  public  outcry  for  920  shillings; 
David  Provost,  Mayor.    New  city  hall  to  be  built. 

1700.  Isaac  De  Riemer,  Mayor. 

1701.  Thomas  Noell,  Mayor. 

1702.  Philip  French,  Mayor.    Charter  printed. 

1703.  William  Peartree,  Mayor. 

1707.    Broadway  paved.    Ebenezer  Wilson,  Mayor. 

1710.  Jacobus  Van  Cortlandt,  Mayor. 

1711.  Caleb  Heathcote,  Mayor. 

1712.  Insurrection  of  negroes,  who  set  fire  to  the  city  and 
killed  several  inhabitants;  19  negroes  executed. 

1714.    John  Johnston,  Mayor. 

1719.  Jacobus  Van  Cortlandt,  Mayor;  second  term. 

1720.  A  tax  of  2  per  cent,  raised  on  all  goods  coming  from 
Europe.  Robert  Walters,  Mayor.  Ferry  to  Long  Island 
established. 

1722.   All  slaves  to  be  buried  by  daylight. 

1725.  Johannes  Jansen,  Mayor.  New  York  Gazette  estab- 
lished. 

1726.  Robert  Lurting,  Mayor. 

1729.  The  Society  in  London  for  the  Propagation  of  the 
Gospel  presented  a  library  (1,642  volumes)  to  the  city, 
which  was  kept  in  city  hall. 

1730.  Jewish  synagogue  built  in  Mill  Street.  John  Cru- 
ger,  Deputy  Mayor. 

1731.  A  very  disastrous  epidemic  of  smallpox  prevailed. 
1,400  houses  in  the  city. 

Slave  market  in  Wall  Street  established. 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


83 


1732.  First  monthly  stage  between  New  York  and  Boston; 
duration  of  journey,  fourteen  days. 

1733.  Law  passed  to  preserve  the  fish  in  the  fresh-water 
pond,  now  Canal  Street. 

1734.  House  of  Correction  instituted. 

1735.  Paul  Richards,  Mayor. 

1739.  John  Cruger,  Mayor.  1,416  houses,  16  having  been 
built  in  seven  years. 

1741.  Yellow  fever  prevailed.  Bedlow's  Island  established 
as  a  smallpox  hospital.  The  Negro  Plot,  to  burn  and 
ransack  the  city;  thirteen  negroes  burned  at  the  stake; 
twenty  hanged,  and  seventy  transported. 

1744.    Stephen  Bayard,  Mayor. 

1746.  1,834  houses,  an  increase  of  418  in  eleven  years. 

1747.  Edward  Holland,  Mayor. 

1752.    Exchange  built  at  lower  Broad  Street. 

1754.  King's  (now  Columbia)  College  founded.  First  re- 
gular theatre  established. 

1755.  Ferry  to  Staten  Island  established. 
1757.    John  Cruger,  jr.,  Mayor. 

1761.  Lamps  and  lamp-posts  purchased. 

1762.  Sixty-six  firemen  in  the  city. 

1765.  St.  Paul's  Church  built. 

1766.  Whitehead  Hicks,  Mayor. 

1768.    Chamber  of  Commerce  established. 

1775.  Battle  in  the  city  between  the  Whigs  and  Tories,  the 
latter  being  defeated. 

August  22 — The  Asia,  British  man-of-war,  fired  upon 
the  city  in  the  night,  causing  the  inhabitants  the  utmost 
alarm. 

1776.  January — A  detachment  of  American  militia  march- 
ed into  the  city,  and  in  the  spring  the  whole  army  fol- 
lowed. 

July  18 — Independence  proclaimed. 
August  26 — New  York  captured  by  the  English. 
September  21 — The  great  fire,  492  houses,  one-eighth  of 
the  city,  being  destroyed. 
David  Matthews,  Tory,  Mayor. 
1780.    May  19 — A  "celebrated  and  fearful  darkness"  com- 
menced at  ten  A.  M.  and  lasted  for  several  hours.  A 
very  severe  winter,  the  harbor  being  entirely  frozen 
over.    Great  suffering  in  the  city. 


34 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


1783.  November  25 — British  army  evacuated  New  York. 
Washington's  army  reentered  the  city. 

1784.  James  Duane,  Mayor;  first  after  Revolution. 
September  11 — Freedom  of  city  voted  to  Lafayette. 
December  2 — Freedom  of    city  voted  to  Washington. 
Streets  cleaned  for  £150  ($750)  a  year.  Waterworks 
proposed. 

1785.  Congress  of  the  United  States  met  in  the  city  hall. 
Bank  of  New  York  in  operation. 

1787.  Up  to  this  year  there  is  no  record  of  any  divorce  in 
the  state  of  New  York. 

1788.  Doctors'  Mob,  occasioned  by  the  indiscreet  exposure 
of  dead  bodies  at  the  hospital.  The  doctors  found  refuge 
in  jail  and  were  guarded  by  the  militia. 

1789.  April  CO — Washington  inaugurated  President  in  front 
of  city  hall.    Mayor,  Richard  Varick. 

1789.    City  issued  £1,000  in  paper  money,  for  public  ac- 
commodation, in  1,  2,  and  3  penny  bills  (a  further  issue 
made  in  1791).    Money  raised  by  lottery. 
Tammany  Society  organized. 

1795.  Yellow  fever  visitation,  which  resulted  in  732  deaths. 

1796.  Potter  s  field  purchased  for  burial-ground. 

1798.  City  fdrtified  at  an  expense  of  $50,000.  Yellow  fever 
deaths  this  year  2,086. 

1799.  Yellow  fever  raged  again.  December  16,  a  day  of 
thanksgiving. 

1800.  Capt.  Randall's  legacy  of  "Sailors'  Snug  Harbor." 

1801.  U.  S.  Navy-yard  established  at  Brooklyn.  Vote  of 
thanks  to  Col.  Yarick  for  twelve  years'  services  as 
Mayor.  Edward  Livingston,  Mayor.  Yellow  fever  par- 
tially prevailed.    Assessed  valuation,  $21,964,037. 

1S03.    De  Witt  Clinton,  Mayor. 

1804.  Great  fire,  forty  stores,  houses,  and  buildings  being 
destroyed. 

1805.  Tammany  Society  incorporated.  Yellow  fever,  one- 
third  of  the  citizens  fled  from  the  city,  230  deaths.  It 
did  not  appear  again  till  1819. 

1806.  First  steamboat  navigation  on  Hudson. 

August  26 — A  British  frigate  off  Sandy  Hook  fired  upon 
the  sloop  Richard,  causing  greatest  excitement  in  city 
and  country.  City  fortified  at  an  expense  of  several 
millions  to  the  United  States. 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


35 


1S07.  All  of  Manhattan  Island  ordered  surveyed.  Marinus 
Willett  appointed  Mayor  in  place  of  Clinton,  removed. 

1808.  De  Witt  Clinton,   Mayor;   second  term. 

1809.  Grace  Church  built. 

1810.  Jacob  Radcliff,  Mayor. 

March  23 — Mechanics'  Bank  incorporated. 

1811.  De  Witt  Clinton,  Mayor;  third  term. 

May  19 — Great  fire  in  Chatham  Street,  by  which  about 
100  houses  were  destroyed.  Third  Avenue  ordered  open- 
ed.   Tammany  Hall  built. 

December  2 — P.  C.  Van  Wyck  chosen  Recorder. 

1812.  New  city  hall  finished.  City  debts  funded  in  stock 
to  the  amount  of  $900,000  at  7  per  cent. 

August  10 — Freedom  of  city  voted  to  Robert  Fulton. 
December  4 — Corporation  loan  of  $100,000  at  6  per  cent, 
subscribed  for  in  five  minutes. 

1813.  $100,000  borrowed  for  the  defence  of  the  city. 
August — An  experiment  made  with  gaslights   in  the 
park. 

1814.  August  31 — Suspension  of  specie  payments,  which 
continued  till  July,  1817.  Corporation  paper  money  in 
denominations  of  QV^,  \1xk,  25,  and  50  cents  was  issued. 

1315.  May — Roman  Catholic  cathedral  consecrated.  John 
Ferguson,  Mayor,  succeeded  by  Jacob  Radcliff. 

1815.  Washington  Market  finished. 

181C.  New  York  and  Liverpool  lino  of  packets  established. 
May — The  American  Eible  Society  founded.  Total 
amount  of  small  change  bills  issued  under  authority  of 
the  corporation  was  $245, 3f6. 

1817.  July  4 — Erie  Canal  begun. 

1818.  Cadwallader  D.  Golden,  Mayor.  Asylum  for  the  In- 
sane commenced.    Great  commercial  distress. 

1819.  First  savings  bank  established. 

September  13 — Reappearance  of  yellow  fever;  twenty- 
three  deaths. 

1820.  First  balloon  ascension  in  America  from  Vauxhall; 
the  aeronaut  descended  in  a  parachute  at  Newtown,  L.  I. 

1821.  January — Hudson  River  and  harbor  entirely  closed 
by  ice,  and  people  walked  to  Staten  Island.  For 
three  days  temperature  —14  deg.  F.  Stephen  Allen, 
Mayor. 


36 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


September  5 — Great  hurricane  from  southeast;  much 
damage  done. 

1522.  Yellow  fever;  infected  district  was  fenced  in;  general 
panic  prevailed;  business  totally  interrupted,  and  388 
persons  died  of  the  fever.  Early  in  November  citizens 
returned  to  their  homes. 

1523.  New  York  Gas  Company  granted  exclusive  pri- 
vilege for  thirty  years  to  lay  pipes  south  of  Grand  Street. 

1824.  William  Paulding,  Mayor.    House  of  Refuge  for  Ju- 
venile  Delinquents  established. 

1825.  Great  fire  in  Sullivan,  Spring,  and  Thompson  Streets, 
which  burned  seventy  houses. 

October  26 — Completion  of  Erie  Canal. 
November   4 — First    canal-boat   arrived   from  Buffalo. 
Italian  opera  first  given.    Public  schools  established; 
cost  of  tuition  between  25  cents  and  $1  per  quarter. 

1S26.  Philip  Hone,  Mayor.  Great  commercial  embarrass- 
ment and  distress,  caused  by  failure  of  spurious  banks 
in  New  Jersey,  which  had  circulated  their  paper  princi- 
pally in  New  York. 

1827.  William  Paulding,  Mayor.  Merchants'  Exchange  in 
Wall  Street  completed. 

1829.    Walter  Bowne,  Mayor. 

1832.  Asiatic  cholera  raged  to  a  fearful  extent,  almost  de- 
populating the  city.  It  returned  two  years  later,  modi- 
fied in  violence,  and  again  in  1849,  1855,  and  1866. 

1833.  Establishment  of  the  penny  press.  Newsboys,  before 
unknown,  were  engaged  as  vendors.  Gideon  Lee,  Mayor 

1834.  Cornelius  Wr.  Lawrence,  Mayor. 

1835.  December  16 — Great  conflagration,  in  which  648 
houses  and  $18,000,000  property  were  destroyed. 

1837.    Commercial  distress,  caused  by  suspension  of  the 
United  States  Bank,  followed  by  that  of  the  state  banks. 
IS37.    Aaron  Clark,  Mayor. 
1839.    Isaac  L.  Varian,  Mayor. 
j841.    Robert  H.  Morris,  Mayor. 

1842.  July  4 — Water  was  let  into  the  reservoir  at  Fifth 
Avenue  and  Forty-second  Street,  and  the  city  had  good 
water  for  the  first  time. 

1844.  James  Harper,  Mayor. 

1845.  First  telegraph  line  opened  to  Philadelphia  and 
Washington. 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


37 


July  19 — Another  great  fire,  which  laid  waste  the  entire 
district  between  Broadway  and  the  eastern  side  of  Broad 
Street.    Loss  several  millions. 

1845.  William  F.  Havemeyer,  Mayor. 

1846.  Andrew  H.  Mickle,  Mayor. 

1847.  William  V.  Brady,  Mayor. 

1848.  William  F.  Havemeyer,  Mayor;  second  term. 
1S49.    Caleb  S.  Wcodhull,  Mayor. 

May  10 — Astor  Place  Opera  riot;  150  people  wounded,  a 
number  killed. 

1850.  September  7 — Appearance  in  Castle  Garden  of  Jenny 
Lind. 

1851.  Ambrose  C.  Kingsland,  Mayor. 

December  5 — Arrival  of  Hungarian  patriot,  Louis  Kos- 
suth. 

1853.    Jacob  A.  Westervelt,  Mayor. 

July  14 — Opening  of  the  World's  Fair  at  the  Crystal  Pa- 
lace in  Reservoir  Square.  December  10 — Harper  Bro- 
thers' establishment  destroyed  by  fire,  loss  over  $1,- 
000,000. 

1855.    Fernando  Wood.  Mayor. 

January  1 — Brooklyn,Williamsburgh,  and  Bushwick  con- 
solidated. Castle  Garden  transformed  into  an  emigrant 
depot. 

185G.    Central  Park  established. 

1857.  Disastrous  year  for  New  York,  beginning  with  mob 
rule,  and  ending  with  great  financial  loss. 

1S58.  Daniel  F.  Tiemann,  Mayor.  Crystal  Palace  destroy- 
ed by  fire.  Cooper  Institute  erected  at  a  cost  of  over 
$600,000. 

1860.  Fernando   Wood,   Mayor;    second  term. 

1861.  April  18 — Massachusetts  Sixth  Regiment  marched 
through  New  York  on  way  to  Washington. 

April  19 — The  Seventh  of  New  York  set  out  for  Wash- 
ington on  their  famous  six  days'  march. 
April  22- -Common  Council  voted  $1,000,000  for  the  de- 
fence of  the  Union.  A  loan  of  $COO,000  in  aid  of  the 
families  of  volunteers  was  subsequently  made.  Com- 
modore Vanderbilt  presented  a  steamer  to  the  govern- 
ment. 

1862.  George  Opdyke,  Mayor.  During  the  first  two  years 
of  the  war  the  people  of  New  York  contributed  to  its 


38 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


support  in  taxes,  gratuities,  and  loans  to  the  government 
over   $300,000,000   and   80,000  volunteers. 

1863.  July  14-16— Draft  riots.    Killed  and  wounded  1,000. 
Union  League  Club  formed. 

1864.  C.  Godfrey  Gunther,  Mayor.  Fair  at  New  York  net- 
ted $1,100,000  for  the  relief  of  the  soldiers. 

October  1 — New  York  city  bcid  contributed  by  this  time 
126,310  volunteers. 

November  25 — Southern  sympathizers  set  fire  to  fifteen 
large  hotels  and  some  shipping  and  lumber-yards  on  the 
North  River. 

1865.  April  15 — The  community  was  paralyzed  by  the  an- 
nouncement that  Lincoln  had  been  assassinated.  Busi- 
ness entirely  suspended,  all  stores  closed  until  after  the 
burial  of  the  President,  and  the  city  draped  in  mourning.* 
April  19 — Day  of  public  mourning. 

Paid  Fire  Department  established.  Steam  fire  engines 
introduced. 

July  13 — Barnum's  Museum,  corner  of  Ann  Street  and 
Broadway,  burned. 
1S66.    John  T.  Hoffman,  Mayor. 

November  15 — Chamber  of  Commerce  gave  a  public  ban- 
quet to  Cyrus  W.  Field  in  honor  of  completion  of  trans- 
atlantic cable. 

April  18 — The  Virginia  arrived  from  Liverpool  with  cho- 
lera on  board. 

May  1 — The  first  case  of  cholera  broke  out.  The  epidemic 
spread  slowly  and  reached  its  height  in  August,  and 
disappeared  in  October;  1,205  deaths,  of  which  460  were 
in  the  city  proper.  Winter  of  1866-'67  was  very  severe; 
the  East  River  being  frozen  over,  and  pepole  crossed 
from  New  York  to  Brooklyn  on  the  ice. 

1867.  Tweed  ring  began  to  come  into  power.  The  inven- 
tion of  the  elevator  made  high  buildings  possible.  First 
elevator  put  in  at  Fifth  Avenue  Hotel. 
April  16 — Act  passed  incorporating  the  New  York 
Bridge  Company  to  build  Brooklyn  Bridge. 
July  2 — First  elevated  road  put  in  operation,  run- 
ning from  Battery  Place  through  Greenwich  Street  and 
Ninth  Avenue  to  Thirtieth  Street,  operated  by  cable. 

1869.    September  24— Black  Friday.    A.  Oakey  Hall,  Mayor. 


GREATER  NEW  YOUK 


39 


1870.  July   12 — "Orange"    disturbance;    fifty-four  people 
killed. 

1871.  October  9 — Grand  Central  Station  opened. 
July  20-29 — Tweed  exposures. 

December  16 — Tweed  arrested. 

1872.  Great  strike;  40,000  men  ceased  work.    Tweed  Ring 
overthrown  in  the  November  election. 

1873.  William  F.  Havemeyer,  Mayor;  third  term.  Great 
.  -  business  and  financial  crisis. 

September  22-30 — Close  of  Stock  Exchange. 

1875.  William  II.  Wickham,  Mayor. 

1876.  The  Emperor  and  Empress  of  Brazil  visited  New 
York. 

September  24— Hallett's  Point  (Hell  Gate)  blown  up. 

1877.  Smith  Ely,  Mayor. 

July  23-27 — Labor  riots  and  railroad  strikes.  General 
post-office  building  finished. 

1878.  The  Sixth  Avenue  elevated  railroad  opened  for  ser- 
vice. 

1879.  Edward  Cooper,  Mayor. 

1881.  William  R.  Grace,  Mayor. 

1882.  Metropolitan  Museum  opened. 
1S83.    Franklin  Edson,  Mayor. 

May  24 — Brooklyn  Bridge  opened. 

1884.  Panic  in  Wall  Streeet.    Suspension  of  Marine  Bank. 

1885.  William  R.  Grace,  Mayor;  second  term.    Greely  re- 
lief steamers  leave  New  York.    Flood  Rock  blown  up. 
August  8 — Grant's  funeral. 

1886.  Statue  of  Liberty  erected. 

1887.  Abram  S.  Hewitt,  Mavor. 

1888.  March  13— Great  blizzard. 

1889.  Hugh  J.  Grant,  Mayor. 

April  29-May  2 — Washington  inaugural  centennial  cele- 
bration. 

1890.  February  4 — One  hundredth  anniversary  of  United 
States  Supreme  Court  celebrated  in  this  city. 

1892.  October  10-12 — Columbus  landing  celebration. 

1893.  The  Eastern  cholera  scare.    Panic  in  Wall  Street. 
Thomas  F.  Gilroy,  Mayor. 

1894.  The  Lexow  investigation.    Tammany  overthrown  in 
the  November  election. 


40 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


1895.  William  L.  Strong,  Mayor.    Public  Library  consoli- 
dation effected. 

January  14 -February  2 — Brooklyn  trolley  strike. 
May  4 — Washington  Arch  dedicated. 
June  17 — Harlem  ship  canal  opened. 

1896.  Site  selected  for  New  York  and  New  Jersey  bridge. 
November  1 — Sound-money  demonstration  in  support  of 
McKinley'9  candidacy  for  the  presidency. 

lcS7.    April    13 — Final   passage    of    Greater    New  YovL 
charter. 

November  2 — First  election  under  that  instrument,  re- 
sulting in  the  restoration  of  Tammany. 
1898.    Robert  A.  Van  Wyck,  Mayor. 


Brooklyn's  Mayors. 


George  Hall   1834 

Jonathan  Trotter    1835-1836 

Jeremiah  Johnson   1837-1838 

Cyrus  P.  Smith   1839-1841 

Henry  C.   Murphy   1842 

Joseph  Sprague   1843-1844 

Thomas  C.  Talmage   1845 

Francis  B.  Stryker   1846-1848 

Edward   Copeland   1849 

Samuel  Smith   1850 

Conklin  Brush   1851-1852 

Edward  A.  Lambert   1853-1 S54 

George  Hall   1855-1856 

Samuel  S.  Powers   1857-1860 

Martin  Kalbfleisch   1861-1863 

Albert  M.  Wood   1864-1865 

Samuel  Booth   1866-1867 

Martin  Kalbfleisch   1868-1871 

Samuel  S.  Powell   1872-1873 

John  W.  Hunter   1874-1875 

Frederick  A.   Schroeder   1876- 1877 

James    Howell   1878-1881 

Seth  Low   1882-1885 

Daniel  D.  Whitney   1886-1887 

Alfred   C.    Chapin   1888-1891 

David  A.   Boody   1892-1893 

Charles  A.  Schieren   1894-1895 

Frederick  W.  Wurster   1896-1897 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


41 


OLD  AND  NEW  TRANSIT  METHODS. 

Picture  two  country  roads  running  parallel  through  a 
strip  of  country,  rough  and  unimproved,  save  for  an  occa- 
sional farm-house,  or  some  modest  stopping-place  where 
travellers  might  procure  refreshment.  Fancy  rumbling 
omnibuses  plodding  their  way  along  the  right-hand  road 
at  stated  intervals,  and  street-cars  much  like  omnibuses 
in  appearance  jogging  along  the  road  to  the  left,  both  lines 
of  conveyance  leading  to  the  village  of  Harlem,  to  be  seen 
in  the  distance.  This  was  local  transportation  in  that 
part  of  Manhattanville  above  Fourteenth  Street  during  the 
years  between  1834  and  1837.  It  is  recorded  that  the  driv- 
ers of  the  rival  lines  of  conveyance,  being  able  to  see  each 
other  across  the  open  country,  occasionally  got  up  a  race, 
and  pressed  their  steeds  hard.  The  street-car  driver  sat 
high  up  on  his  vehicle,  as  high  up  as  the  omnibus-driver 
was  perched;  thus  full  view  of  the  intervening  country  and 
of  each  other  could  be  obtained.  By  either  of  these  modes 
of  conveyance  the  fare  from  the  city  to  Harlem  was,  first 
25  cents,  afterwards  18%  cents,  and  later  12%  cents. 

The  first  street  railroad  to  be  built  in  the  United  States, 
or,  indeed,  in  America,  was  started  on  the  Bowery,  to  run 
from  Prince  Street  to  Twenty-third.  It  was  thought  that 
the  people  below  Prince  Street  could  get  a^out  c-mfortab'y 
on  foot  or  in  their  private  conveyances;  but  whenever  any- 
body who  did  not  own  a  private  conveyance  wanted  to  go 
out  of  town,  up  into  that  little-known  and  unexplored 
country  above  Fourteenth  Street,  there  was  difficulty.  To 
accommodate  these  wayfarers  the  New  York  and  Harlem 
Railway  Company  was  organized.  The  Legislature  grant- 
ed the  company  a  charter  on  April  25,  1831.  The  corpo- 
rators were  public-spirited  and  enterprising  citizens  of  the 
borough,  but  they  had  many  difficulties  to  contend  with 
before  their  undertaking  could  be  carried  into  effect.  In 
the  first  place,  the  questions  of  construction  of  the  road- 
bed, and  what  material  was  best  to  use  for  stringers,  ties, 
etc.,  were  matters  for  much  discussion,  and  then  the  cars 
themselves,  when  the  road  should  have  been  built,  would 
have  to  be  made  in  England. 

The  first  street-cars  operated  ran  from  Prince  to  Four- 
teenth Street,  and  they  made  so  much  no|se  as  to  be  hearcl 


42 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


two  or  three  blocks  from  the  Bowery.  This  was  owing  to 
the  rigid  construction  of  the  road  and  the  granite  ties  and 
stringers  on  which  the  rails  were  laid.  Certain  of  these 
granite  stringers  are  being  unearthed  to-day  in  Madison 
Avenue,  where  the  tunnelling  for  yet  further  improvement 
in  transportation  is  going  forward.  These  granite  stringers 
were  used  for  two  years,  when  they  were  taken  up,  and 
stringers  of  Georgia  pine  substituted,  the  discarded  granite 
being  sold  to  the  city  for  gutter  stones.  Some  of  these 
granite  boulders  are  built  into  the  massive  stone  wall  at  the 
entrance  of  the  Fourth  Avenue  tunnel  at  Thirty-third 
Street.  In  this  first  experimental  road  no  allowance  was 
made  for  expansion  from  the  heat  in  summer  weather,  and 
there  is  an  account  of  a  citizen  losing  his  life  bscaus3  of  this 
oversight.  A  loosened  rail  having  been  jostled  out  of  place 
by  the  action  of  the  heat,  it  pushed  through  the  bottom 
of  a  car  with  such  force  as  to  impale  this  luckless  passen- 
ger and  inflict  fatal  injury. 

The  knowledge  requisite  for  making  each  step  in  road- 
bed and  car  construction  an  improvement  was  gained  bit 
by  bit,  only  after  experience  had  shown  the  defects  of  for- 
mer methods  and  much  time  and  money  had  been  expend- 
ed. The  people  who  rode  on  these  first  street-cars,  from 
Prince  to  Fourteenth  Street,  rode  more  for  pleasure  or 
from  curiosity  than  for  convenience,  but  old  records  have 
it  that  there  was  considerable  travel  to  Vauxhall  Gardens, 
now  Astor  Place,  the  fare  charged  being  sixpence.  The 
office  of  the  company  was  at  No.  241  Bowery.  It  was  a 
prim  little  two-story  building,  and  John  S.  Whigham,  the 
Superintendent,  lived  up  stairs  over  the  office,  so  as  to  be 
closely  in  touch  with  the  interests  he  represented.  After- 
wards, in  1839,  the  company  moved  its  office  to  Wall  Street, 
where  the  Mills  building  now  stands.  Laborers  at  that 
time  were  paid  at  the  rate  of  50  and  60  cents  per  day. 

It  appears  that  the  old-time  city  fathers  had  an  eye  to 
personal  interest  as  well  as  to  the  advancement  of 
public  weal,  for  it  is  related  in  the  Street  Railway  Journal 
that  a  certain  Alderman,  Henry  Erbon  of  the  Sixth  Ward, 
influenced  the  railway  company  to  go  by  his  factory  door 
instead  of  the  route  they  had  originally  selected.  It  was 
the  intention  of  the  directors  of  the  Prince  Street  line  to 
reach  the  city  hall  by  way  of  Chatham  Square,  but  they 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


43 


went  by  Broome  and  Centre  Streets  in  order  to  pass  the 
organ  factory  in  question. 

The  first  street  cars  were,  in  appearance,  like  coaches, 
of  the  pattern  used  at  present  on  European  railroads.  Each 
car  had  two  compartments  capable  of  seating  ten  passen- 
gers. There  were  six  doors,  three  on  each  side,  and  the 
seat  for  the  driver  was  elevated  as  upon  an  omnibus.  No 
springs  were  used.  The  cars  were  suspended  over  the  track 
by  leather  links. 

Where  the  handsome  Broadway  retail  stores  now  stand, 
below  Twenty -third  Street,  there  was  a  big  hill,  which  was 
cut  through  when  the  car-line  was  extended  to  Twenty- 
third  Street.  The  earth  removed  in  this  grading  was  used  to 
fill  in  the  low  flats  that  have  since  been  appropriated  to 
Madison  Square.  From  Twenty-fourth  Street  to  Thirty- 
second  Street  was  level  ground,  but  when  the  line  was  ex- 
tended, in  1834,  to  Forty-second  Street,  there  was  much 
work  to  be  done.  The  solid  rock  at  Murray  Hill  had  to  be 
cut  through,  and  there  was  a  deep  ravine  running  from 
Fifth  Avenue  to  Third  Avenue  and  the  East  River,  which 
had  to  be  filled  up  and  made  level  before  work  could  go  on. 
This  ravine  carried  off  the  surface  and  waste  water  from 
Peter  Cooper's  glue  factory  near  where  Thirty-third  Street 
now  crosses. 

July  4,  1835,  was  a  grand  gala  day,  for  the  road  was  then 
opened  through  to  Eighty-fouith  Street.  The  wheels  used  on 
the  new  cars  employed  at  that  time  were  made  by  an  El- 
dridge  Street  maker,  who  made  boilers  and  castings  of  all 
kinds.  In  1840  the  original  four-wheel  cars  were  aban- 
doned, and  eight  wheels  put  on.  Five  years  later  four- 
wheeled  cars,  built  low,  and  having  a  platform  at  each  end, 
were  adopted. 

It  was  in  1837  that  the  company  fenced  in  the  block  at 
Twenty-sixth  Street,  and  put  up  offices  and  stables.  Then 
there  were  only  a  few  houses  above  Fourteenth  Street,  but 
soon  after  the  cars  began  running  buildings  went  up  on  the 
avenues,  in  Irving  Place,  and  sundry  cross  streets.  The 
Twenty-sixth  Street  line  ran  from  five  o'clock  in  the  morn- 
ing to  half-past  six  at  night.  A  few  cars  were  put  on  to 
run  every  half  hour  until  twelve  o'clock,  to  accommodate 
people  going  to  the  theatres  and  lecture  halls  below  Tenth 
Street.  For  a  long  while  after  the  road  was  opened  through 


•14 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


to  Harlem  passengers  from  down  town  had  to  walk  over 
tunnel  hill  and  make  connection  with  the  cars  on  the  other 
side. 

The  Sixth  Avenue  Street  Railway  Company  was  orga- 
nized and  chartered  in  September,  1851.  The  Second  Ave- 
nue Railway  was  built  and  put  in  operation  four  years 
later,  the  charter  having  been  granted  in  1853. 

The  Ninth  Avenue  Railway  Company  was  organized  in 
1859,  and  a  half-dozen  or  more  cross-town  roads,  both  in 
the  upper  and  lower  sections  of  the  city,  were  constructed 
within  the  next  ten  or  fifteen  years,  as  the  city  grew  in 
size  and  population.  In  1883  a  road  was  begun  on  Tenth 
Avenue,  from  One  Hundred  and  Twenty-fifth  to  One  Hun- 
dred and  Eighty-sixth  Street,  to  be  operated  by  cable.  It 
was  completed  in  1886.  The  company  owning  this  novel 
property  also  constructed  a  street-car  line  from  Park  Row 
through  Chatham  Street,  the  Bowery,  and  Third  Avenue 
to  Sixty-first  Street.  They  operated  a  line  of  omnibuses 
along  this  route.  Because  of  unforeseen  obstructions  the 
completion  of  this  latter  cable  road  was  much  delayed,  but 
it  was  completed  early  in  1.893,  and  was  opened  to  the  pub- 
lic a  few  months  later,  when  the  primitive  'busses  were 
taken  off  and  remanded  to  seclusion. 

Omnibuses  were  the  only  mode  of  transportation  on 
Broadway  up  to  the  year  1SS5.  On  June  21  of  that  year, 
after  much  persistent  effort,  the  Broadway  and  Seventh 
Avenue  Company  started  their  horse  cars  on  the  main  ar- 
tery of  the  town.  The  proprietors  of  the  handsome  retail 
stores  along  the  route  were  the  most  strenuous  opposers  of 
the  scheme.  The  introduction  of  a  mode  of  travel  as  de- 
mocratic as  the  street-car  would  rob  them  of  their  car- 
riage custom,  they  said,  and  they  fought  the  idea  with  all 
the  influence  at  their  command. 

Less  than  ten  years  afterwards  the  Broadway  cable  cars 
were  put  on.  The  first  cable  cars  on  this  main  thorough- 
fare ran  from  Houston  to  Thirty-sixth  Street.  The  first 
cable  cars  were  put  on  in  June,  1893.  The  first  cable  that 
was  in  use  lasted  over  a  year.  Owing  to  the  increase  in 
travel  and  the  increased  number  of  oars  now  in  use,  the 
cables  now  seldom  last  longer  than  from  two  to  six  months. 
The  business  of  the  company  grows  heavier  and  heavier 
from  month  to  month  and  from  year  to  year,  both  in  mile- 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


45 


age  and  expenditure,  the  number  of  cars  in  use,  and  the 
number  of  passengers  carried. 

One  of  the  most  recent  changes  was  the  introduction  a 
few  weeks  ago  of  the  underground  trolley  on  the  Madison 
and  Fourth  Avenue  street-car  line. 

THE  ELEVATED  RAILROADS. 

The  elevated  railway  now  in  this  city,  with  its  1,117  pas- 
senger-cars, its  335  engines,  its  5,520  employees,  and  its 
trains  running  only  fifty  seconds  apart,  had  its  source  in 
a  road  operated  by  the  West  Side  and  Yonkers  Railway 
Company  just  thirty  years  ago.  This  road  was  built  on 
Greenwich  Street  from  Battery  Place  to  Cortlandt  Street. 
It  was  completed  and  accepted  by  the  Rapid-Transit  Com- 
mission July  2,  1868.  There  was  one  station  on  the  north- 
east corner  of  Cortlandt  Street.  The  road  was  next  ex- 
tended to  Thirtieth  Street.  It  was  a  single-track  road, 
and  it  took  twenty  minutes  to  make  the  trip.  It  skirted  the 
east  side  of  Greenwich  Street  up  to  Fourteenth  Street,  and 
thence  into  Ninth  Avenue.  This  extension  single  track 
was  completed  in  February,  1870,  and  a  second  line  ot 
tracks  was  finished  by  July,  1870.  The  cars  were  operated 
by  an  endless  chain,  without  an  engine,  being  driven  by 
stationary  engines  that  were  located  under  ground  at  Cort- 
landt, Franklin,  Bank,  and  Twenty-second  Streets.  This 
method  of  operation  proved  a  failure.  The  grips  were  in- 
effective, the  chains  would  sag,  and  numerous  details  of  the 
machinery  get  out  of  order.  The  road  remained  idle  from 
November,  1870,  to  April,  1871.  In  April,  1871,  dummy  en- 
gines and  three  cars  were  put  in  service  between  the  two 
stations,  and  this  amendment  proved  more  satisfactory, 
although  the  road  just  about  that  time  went  into  the  hands 
of  a  receiver,  or  of  a  trustee,  as  such  a  referee  was  called 
then.  Soon  afterwards  stations  were  built  at  Watts  Street, 
Twelfth  Street,  and  Ninth  Street,  stations  since  removed. 

A  circular  issued  to  the  public  by  the  directors  of  this  road, 
in  October,  1872,  is  interesting  and  rather  humorous  reading 
at  this  time.  This  circular  informed  New  Yorkers  that  the 
company  had  had  four  unique  and  elegantly  furnished  cars 
made  expressly  for  their  road,  cars  capable  of  seating  for- 
ty-four passengers.  "The  road  takes  no  more  passengers 
than  can  be  comfortably  seated,"  is  the  printed  announce- 


46 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


ment,  and  it  is  further  made  known  that  the  company  is 
frequently  compelled  to  refuse  passengers  after  all  the  cars 
are  full.  "We  are  building  additional  rolling  stock,  four 
additional  new  stations,  and  will  guarantee  to  make  trips 
from  the  Battery  and  back  in  future  occupying  only  thirty 
minutes  each  way.  We  believe  that  we  are  developing 
what  will  enhance  the  value  of  real  estate,  solve  the  prob- 
lem of  quick  transit,  relieve  our  crowded  streets  and  side- 
walks, and  be  of  great  public  service,  as  well  as  a  success- 
ful and  paying  enterprise.  We  invite  your  cooperation, 
support,  and  influence."  The  Franklin  Street  station  was 
opened  January  21,  1873,  and  the  Liberty  Street  station  in 
1874.    Then  the  Dey  Street  station  was  abandoned. 

The  main  line  to  Thirty-fourth  Street  was  completed  in 
July,  1873;  extended  to  Fifty-ninth  Street  in  1876,  and  was 
carried  from  Battery  Place  and  Greenwich  Street  across 
Battery  Park  to  South  Ferry  by  April,  1877,  in  October  of 
which  year  the  Third  Avenue  line  was  started.  All  this 
while  only  single  tracks  were  in  use,  the  necessary  shift- 
ing and  changing  about  being  effected  by  means  of  turn- 
outs at  various  points.  A  double-track  line  was  begun  in 
1S78,  and  from  that  time  on  the  original  tracks  and  stations 
were  gradually  replaced  by  new  structures.  In  1880  only 
dummy  engines  were  in  use  on  the  road.  The  fact  that  the 
New  York  Central  Railroad  entered  the  city  at  Thirtieth 
Street  and  Ninth  Avenue  was  the  main  reason  for  the  ori- 
ginal elevated  line  of  cars  having  its  terminus  at  that 
point.  The  Third  Avenue  line  was  opened  from  South 
Ferry  on  August,  26,  1878.  In  1872  there  were  only  three 
or  four  cars  on  the  Ninth  Avenue  road,  and  one  engine.  In 
1874  there  were  ten  cars  and  six  engines;  in  1876  there 
were  twenty-one  cars  and  fifteen  engines.  In  1875  the  ele- 
vated road  was  paying  its  stockholders  so  well  that  appli- 
cations were  made  to  the  Legislature  for  other  charters. 
The  Gilbert  Elevated  Railway  was  started  on  Sixth  Ave- 
nue. At  first  the  surface-car  lines  opposed  the  movements 
of  this  company,  and  work  was  obstructed;  but  all  objec- 
tions were  overcome,  and  this  new  elevated  road  was  for- 
mally opened  to  the  public  on  June  5,  two  years  later. 

The  Second  Avenue  line  was  opened  in  September,  1879. 
The  Gilbert,  subsequently  the  Metropolitan,  and  the  origi- 
nal West  Side  and  Yonkers  Railway  were  consolidated  into 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


47 


the  Manhattan  on  May  20,  1879.  The  directors  who  in  1872 
called  the  attention  of  the  public  to  their  successful  enter- 
prise, and  invited  their  "support,  cooperation,  and  influ- 
ence," would  be  astonished  at  a  passenger  record  of  1,075,- 
000  in  a  single  day,  or  of  the  movement  of  3.000,000  people 
in  the  three  successive  days  when  visitors  crowded  New 
York  for  the  Columbus  celebration.  The  rate  of  mileage 
would  likewise  astonish  them,  and  also  the  management 
of  perplexing  detail  in  all  departments  that  is  now  the  rou- 
tine work  of  the  road. 


BY  STEAMSHIP  TO  EUROPE. 

It  is  an  extraordinary  fact  that  within  the  span  of  a 
man's  life  the  ocean  steamer  has  passed  from  the  experi- 
mental stage  to  what  appears  now  to  be  nearly  its  highest 
development.  On  July  4,  1815,  little  more  than  eighty 
years  ago,  surely  one  of  New  York's  historic  days,  Fulton's 
150-foot  Demologos  steamed  past  Sandy  Hook,  the  first  of 
an  innumerable  host,  breasted  the  waves  of  the  ocean  for  a 
few  miles,  and  returned  to  her  moorings  on  the  Hudson 
with  a  jubilant  party  on  board.  This  triumph  suggested  a 
transatlantic  voyage — a  suggestion  that  was  received  at 
first  with  stolid  incredulity  and  then  with  derision. 

"The  project  of  making  a  voyage  (by  steamship)  directly 
from  New  York  to  Liverpool,"  declared  an  eminent  Eng- 
lishman, "is  perfectly  chimerical.  They  might  as  well  talk 
of  making  a  voyage  directly  from  New  York  or  Liverpool 
to  the  moon."  And  though  inland  and  coastwise  naviga- 
tion steadily  developed  meanwhile,  it  was  not  until  1819 
that  the  partially  successful  voyage  of  a  hybrid  craft,  half 
sailer,  half  steamer,  shook  the  assurance  of  this  and  other 
dogmatists.  For  seventeen  years,  however,  transatlantic 
steamers  unaccountably  languished;  then  an  indubitably 
successful  passage  was  followed  by  an  immediate  revival  of 
interest,  large  investments,  and  a  growth  that  has  continued 
to  this  day. 

The  first  vessel  to  cross  the  Atlantic  with  partial  use  of 
steam  as  a  propelling  power  was  the  Savannah,  of  380  tons, 
launched  at  Corlears,  N.  Y.,  on  August  22,  1818.  She  had 
been  built  as  a  sailing  ship,  to  ply  between  New  York  and 


48 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


Savannah,  and  served  that  purpose  for  almost  a  year,  when 
she  was  bought  by  a  syndicate  of  Savannah  merchants  and 
fitted  with  a  steam-engine  and  paddle-wheels.  Her  own- 
ers seem  to  have  had  only  little  faith  in  paddle-wheels,  for 
they  were  so  constructed  that  they  could  be  folded  and 
stowed  away  on  deck  should  that  seem  advisable.  The 
Savannah  left  port  on  May  26,  1819,  with  a  cargo  of  pitch 
pine  for  fuel,  and  arrived  at  Liverpool  after  twenty-five 
days,  the  paddle-wheels  having  been  idle  for  seven  days. 
Evidently  the  experiment  had  been  discouraging,  for  the 
Savannah  returned  as  a  sailing  vessel,  and  contentedly  re- 
mained one  until,  some  years  later,  a  great  storm  put  an 
end  to  her  career  on  the  south  coast  of  Long  Island. 

The  voyage  of  the  Savannah  had  proven  steam  to  be 
a  desirable  auxiliary  power — nothing  more.  Could  sufficient 
fuel  be  carried  to  make  it  more  desirable?  This  became 
the  great  problem,  and  the  preponderance  of  opinion  was 
decidedly  negative.  In  1836  the  Great  Western  Steamship 
Company  was  organized  in  England,  and  satisfactorily 
solved  the  problem.  The  Great  Western,  from  whose  first 
voyage  really  dates  transatlantic  steamship  travel,  was  de- 
signed on  a  scale  of  unprecedented  magnitude.  She  was 
launched  on  July  19,  1837,  and  sailed  from  Bristol  for  New 
York  on  Sunday,  April  3,  1838,  with  seven  intrepid  passen- 
gers on  board. 

In  the  meantime  the  Sirus,  an  avowed  competitor,  had 
been  fitted  up  by  a  hastily  organized  company  to  attempt 
the  voyage,  and  had  sailed  four  days  in  advance  of  the 
Great  Western.  This,  the  first  ocean  race,  was  won  by  the 
Great  Western.  Both  vessels  arrived  in  New  York  on  the 
same  day,  Monday,  April  23 — the  Great  Western  with  200 
tons  of  coal  in  her  bunkers  and  the  Sirus,  her  supply  ex- 
hausted, burning  spars  and  resin  to  enable  her  to  reach 
port.  The  day  of  the  arrival  was  a  red-letter  one  in  the 
history  of  New  York.  The  people  were  not  blind  to  the 
great  promise  in  the  event.  There  was  an  enthusiastic  re- 
ception; the  news  was  spread  abroad,  and  the  whole  na- 
tion was  interested.  And  in  proof  of  the  sincerity  of  their 
faith,  it  may  be  told  that  when  the  Great  Western  left  port 
homeward  bound,  cheered  by  a  hundred  thousand  people 
from  Battery  Park  (according  to  an  exuberant  reporter  of 
the  time),  she  carried  sixty-six  passengers, 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


49 


After  having  made  sixty-four  transatlantic  voyages,  from 
1838  to  1843,  with  an  average  time  of  passage  between  Li- 
verpool and  New  York  of  fifteen  days  and  twelve  hours, 
and  from  New  York  eastward  of  thirteen  days  and  six 
hours,  and  having  carried  an  average  of  eighty-five  passen- 
gers per  trip,  the  Great  Western  was  sold,  in  1847,  to  the 
West  India  Steam  Packet  Company.  Ten  years  later  she 
was  broken  up  at  Vauxhall,  and  for  a  season,  it  is  said, 
her  historic  hull  fed  the  drawing-room  fires  of  West  End, 
London.  A  comparison — space  limits  it  to  a  brief  one — be- 
tween the  first  ocean  steamer  and  the  latest  addition  to 
the  North  German  Lloyd  fleet,  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  der 
Grosse,  and  of  the  records  of  their  maiden  trips,  is  inte- 
resting. 

The  Great  Western  had  a  length  over  all  of  236  feet, 
breadth  of  beam  35  feet  4  inches,  depth  33  feet  2  inches, 
tonnage  1,340;  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  der  Grosse  has  a  length 
of  649  feet,  beam  66  feet,  depth  43  feet,  and  tonnage  14,000. 
The  Great  Western's  maiden  trip  consumed  something  over 
fifteen  days;  that  of  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  der  Grosse  5  days 
22  hours  and  35  minutes.  The  former  burned  600  tons  of  coal 
during  the  passage;  the  latter  500  tons  a  day.  The  great- 
est number  of  passengers  carried  by  the  Great  Western  on 
a  single  trip  was  152;  the  Kaiser  Wilhelm  has  accommoda- 
tions for  1,440  passengers  and  a  crew  of  460 — a  total  of  1,900. 

The  year  1840  and  the  immediately  succeeding  ones 
were  notable  in  the  history  of  steam  navigation.  Samuel 
Cunard  of  Halifax,  N.  S.,  with  George  Burns  of  Glasgow 
and  David  Mclver  of  Liverpool,  founded  the  Cunard  Line 
and  established  steam  traffic  between  the  two  continents; 
and  the  Great  Western  Steamship  Company  built  the  Great 
Britain,  and  so  revolutionized  steamship  construction  and 
the  application  of  the  propelling  power.  In  1840  the  Eng- 
lish government  entered  into  a  contract  with  the  Cunard 
Company  for  carrying  the  mails — the  consideration  was 
$400,000  a  year — and  the  Acadia,  Britannia,  Columbia,  and 
Caledonia  were  put  afloat.  The  first,  the  Britannia,  was  a 
paddle-wheel  steamer  with  a  wooden  hull,  but,  neverthe- 
less, a  great  wonder  in  her  day.  She  sailed  from  Liverpool 
on  Friday,  July  4,  1840,  and  arrived  in  Boston  in  14  days  and 
8  hours.  She  carried  ninety  cabin  passengers — steamers 
carried  no  steerage  passengers  in  the  early  days — who  were 


50 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


subject  to  almost  all  the  discomforts  of  the  old  ocean  clip- 
pers. 

The  Great  Britain,  built  by  the  Great  Western  Steam- 
ship Company  and  launched  on  July  19,  1843,  proved  to  be 
a  great  experiment,  but  a  disastrous  venture,  and  eventually 
the  ruin  of  her  owners.  She  was  the  first  large  steamship 
with  a  hull  of  iron  and  the  first  screw  steamer  of  any  con- 
siderable size.  She  had  a  length  of  322  feet  over  all,  a 
beam  of  51  feet,  and  a  tonnage  of  3,443;  the  diameter  of 
her  screw  was  15  feet  and  6  inches.  She  left  Liverpool  for 
New  York  on  August  26,  18-15,  and  made  the  passage  in 
fourteen  days  and  twenty-one  hours,  two  days  more  than 
the  Great  Western's  best  westward  record.  She  was  a  bit- 
ter disappointment  to  her  owners,  and  was  altered  and  fit- 
ted with  a  new  screw,  but  never  distinguished  herself.  In 
1846  she  overran  her  reckoning,  and  was  stranded  on  the 
Irish  coast.  The  disaster  completed  the  ruin  of  the  Great 
Western  Company.  The  stranded  ship  was  sold,  was  re- 
paired by  her  purchasers,  and  plied  between  Liverpool  and 
Australia  for  many  years.  Only  so  short  a  time  ago  as  1886 
she  stranded  on  the  Falkland  Islands,  and  was  wrecked  be- 
yond repair. 

A  period  of  rapid  development  set  in  about  1845.  In 
that  year  R.  B.  Forbes  of  Boston  built  the  Massachusetts 
and  Edith  for  transatlantic  trade.  In  June,  1847,  the  Paci- 
fic Mail  Company  established  the  pioneer  line  between  New 
York  and  Southampton  with  the  Washington.  In  1850  the 
government  subsidized  the  Collins  Line,  and  a  number  ot 
vastly  improved  ocean  steamers  were  built.  This  line  was 
the  first  considerable  competitor  of  the  Cunard  Line,  and 
in  1851  reduced  the  time  of  passage  to  about  eleven  days. 
In  1850  the  Inman  Line,  now  the  American  Line,  built  a 
number  of  screw  steamers.  In  1856  the  Anchor  Line  was 
established,  and  the  Hamburg- American  Company  built  its 
first  steamship.  In  1857  the  North  German  Lloyd  entered 
the  field.  The  Bremen,  the  first  of  the  company's  great 
fleet  to  cross  the  Atlantic,  carried  only  twenty-two  cabin 
passengers.  In  1861  the  French  Compagnie  Generale  Trans- 
atlantique  was  organized,  and  in  1863  the  National  Line, 
The  Guion  Line  became  an  aggressive  competitor  for  %pa- 
tronage  in  1866.  In  1870  the  White  Star  Line  launched  the 
first  vessel  of  the  new  type,  extreme  length  in  proportion 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


§1 


to  breadth,  with  twin  screws,  and  luxurious  appointments, 
and  gave  a  decided  impetus  to  the  development  of  every 
phase  of  steamship  travel. 

The  Thingvalla  Line  was  established  a  few  years  later. 
Other  companies  organized  were  the  Atlantic  Transport 
Line,  the  Prince  Line,  for  service  between  New  York  and 
the  Mediterranean;  the  Lamport  and  Holt  Line,  the  Medi- 
terranean and  New  York  Steamship  Company,  Limited,  and 
the  Wilson  Line.  Improvements  in  construction  and  equip- 
ment followed  one  another  in  swift  succession,  until,  at  the 
present  day,  the  discomfort,  danger,  and  tedium  of  the 
transatlantic  voyage  have  been  well-nigh  annihilated,  and 
it  almost  seems  that  human  ingenuity  can  devise  little 
more  so  long  as  steam  remains  the  motive  power. 


NEW  YORK  PARKS. 

The  peorle  who  have  inhabited  the  Island  of  Manhattan 
from  the  founding  or"  New  Amsterdam  to  the  present  time  have 
always  had  public  park-ground.  At  the  beginning,  in  the 
first  half  of  the  seventeenth  century,  when  the  town  was, 
properly  speaking,  but  a  cluster  of  cottages  in  a  vast 
natural  park,  the  settlers  decreed  and  jealously  preserved 
the  Battery.  Doubtless  the  aboriginal  dangers  of  prome- 
nading beyond  the  confines  of  the  settlement  had  not  a  little 
to  do  with  the  creation  of  this  pleasure-ground  well  within 
its  defences;  but  this  does  not  alter  the  fact  that  the  Dutch 
burghers  demanded  and  reserved  a  beautiful  space  for  lei- 
sure saunterings  while  they  looked  seaward  through  curling 
clouds  of  pipe-smoke.  It  remained  for  many  a  year — in 
fact  thr  oughout  the  Knickerbccker  days — "the  ele£ant  prome- 
nade." "There  late  on  summer  afternoons  and  evenings," 
saith  the  historian,  "might  always  be  seen  crowds  of  well- 
dressed  people  and  flocks  of  happy  children.  It  was  a 
fashionable  resort  and  general  luxury  for  all."  Contempo- 
raneous with  the  Battery — virtually  a  part  of  it — was  Bowl- 
ing Green,  rather  a  play-ground,  or  "open-air  gymnasium," 
than  a  park.  Here  the  muscle  of  the  town  congregated, 
and  here  in  the  Revolutionary  days  the  first  explosion  of 
patriotism  shattered  the  equestrian  statue  of  his  divine- 
right  Majesty  George  the  Third. 


52 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


City  hall  park  was  the  next  acquisition  of  the  growing 
town  in  the  way  of  park  space.  The  United  States  of  Ame- 
rica was  a  regnant  fact,  and  the  year  was  1803.  The  park, 
then  well  up  town,  was  but  a  barren  common  when  upon  it 
was  erected  the  first  city  hall,  and  the  name  bestowed 
which  it  holds  to-day.  It  had  two  companion  buildings — the 
Bridewell,  which  lay  between  it  and  Broadway,  and  was 
used  for  the  imprisonment  of  felons,  and  the  debtors'  prison, 
which  in  this  year  of  grace,  after  countless  vicissitudes  of 
occupation  (including  that  of  a  cholera  hospital),  is  doing 
duty  as  the  Hall  of  Records  of  the  metropolis  of  the  new 
world.  One  of  the  most  stirring  scenes  which  ever  trans- 
pired within  the  park's  area  was  the  outpouring  of  citizens 
to  denounce  the  vote  of  the  Legislature  of  the  state  to 
remove  their  idol,  De  Witt  Clinton,  from  the  office  of  Canal 
Commissioner. 

Next  came  what  may  be  described  as  the  era  of  semi- 
public,  or  proprietary,  parks.  Perhaps  the  first  was  St. 
John's,  spread  out  before  the  historic  chapel  of  that  name — 
still,  happily,  standing.  It  was  beautifully  laid  out;  it  was 
delightfully  shaded;  but  around  it  ran  an  iron  fence,  wnose 
gates  swung  open  only  to  the  key  of  a  "subscriber."  Look- 
ing down  into  its  umbrageous  bosom  were  the  houses  of  the 
elite  of  the  day — the  aforesaid  "subscribers."  All  have 
vanished — elite  and  their  exclusive  park;  memorable  names 
in  local  annals  are  carved  upon  the  tombstones  of  the 
former,  and  a  hideous  railway  freight  station  has  blotted 
out  the  latter.  But  long  before  St.  John's  deletion  the 
perennial  course  of  population  northward  had  rea  hed  Wash- 
ington Square.  That  famous  park  was  not  so  much  created 
as  re-created.  It  has  been  conceived  in  dishonor;  it  had 
been  the  Fotter's  Field.  It  was  raised  in  honor;  the  un- 
sightly moulds  were  levelled,  the  desert  of  the  dead  was 
made  to  blossom  as  the  rose,  and  a  tall  iron  enclosure 
sanctified  it  to  fashion,  which  by  1837  had  girded  it  with 
homes,  and  to-day  maintains  a  foothold  on  its  north  side. 

But  the  world  of  fashion  was  a  growing  one,  and  a  new 
centre  was  needed.  It  was  found  in  Union  Square,  which, 
by  the  year  1845,  was  fairly  wrestling  the  palm  from  Wash- 
ington Square  as  the  ultra-fashionable  place  of  abode.  It, 
too,  was  protected  by  a  fence  from  the  profanation  of  the 
vulgar.    In  his  earliest  essay  on  Du  Maurier,  Henry  James 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


53 


recalls  it  thus:  "Many  years  ago  a  small  American  child 
[the  future  English  novelist  himself]  .  .  .  lived  in  New 
York  and  played  in  Union  Square,  which  was  then  enclosed 
by  a  high  railing,  and  guarded  by  a  solitary  policeman — a 
strange,  superannuated,  dilapidated  functionary,  carrying  a 
little  cane  and  wearing,  with  a  very  copious  and  very  dirty 
(Shirt-front,  the  costume  of  a  man  of  the  world."  It  was 
not  until  1856  that  the  Square  boasted  the  equestrian  statue 
of  Washington,  the  only  public  monument  of  the  kind  then 
existing  in  the  city. 

At  about  the  same  period  as  the  rise  of  Union  Square, 
four  acres  of  the  old  farm  of  Gov.  Stuyvesant  were  dedicat- 
ed to  a  proprietary  park  and  christened  with  the  name  of 
that  immortal  worthy.  It  likewise  rapidly  became  a  do- 
main of  wealth  and  fashion,  and  was  dominated  physically 
and  spiritually  by  the  successive  piles  of  St.  George's  Church. 
Not  many  years  subsequently  Gramercy  Park  was  called 
into  existence  by  Samuel  B.  Ruggles,  who  conveyed  it  in 
trust  to  the  owners  of  the  sixty  lots  around  it.  The  good 
fortune  of  the  preceding  private  parks  followed  it  and  made 
it  speedily  a  coveted  residential  location;  but  it  alone  retains 
to-day  its  proprietary  and  exclusive  character.  The  citizen 
who  traverses  its  walks  or  rests  beneath  the  shade  of  its 
trees  does  so  with  a  certain  air  of  importance,  for  to  all  the 
world  it  is  known  that  he  is  the  possessor  of  a  "key." 
Meanwhile  there  was  Tompkins  Square,  in  the  northeast  of 
the  city,  which  in  1850  had  just  been  planted  with  trees. 
Hamilton  Square  also  existed  as  a  sort  of  rough  common, 
six  miles  from  the  city  hall,  well  to  the  eastern  part  of  the 
island,  and  with  no  pretentions  to  speak  of  save  the  corner- 
stone of  a  projected  Washington  monument. 

At  the  close  of  the  fifties,  also,  Madison  Square  emerged 
into  existence.  Prior  to  1839  it  had  been  the  site  of  the 
House  of  Refuge,  then  "out  in  the  country."  In  that  year 
the  structure  and  outlying  buildings  were  consumed  by  fire, 
leaving,  with  their  surrounding  grounds,  ten  devastated  and 
unsightly  acres,  partly  of  a  swampy  nature.  The  proposi- 
tion to  convert  the  desolate  tract  into  a  park  was  made 
and  remade  a  number  of  times,  and  some  attempt  was  ven- 
tured upon  to  get  the  ground  in  shape;  but  an  inveterate 
stream  of  water  defeated  these  half -heai ted  endeavors,  mu  h 
to  the  delight  of  the  small  country  boys  thereabouts,  who 


54 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


found  the  overflow  capital  foi  sliding  and  skating.  Hence 
it  was  not  until  the  public-spirited  mayoralty  of  James  Har- 
per, of  the  famous  publishing  firm,  in  1844  to  1847,  that  ef- 
fectual steps  were  taken  to  bring  forth  Madison  Square.  In 
the  years  that  followed  it  came  to  surpass  all  other  squares 
in  the  quality  of  its  residential  reputation,  having  been  the 
home — to  mention  no  other — of  the  celebrated  Flora  Mc- 
Flimsy.  It  was  long,  and  to  a  measurable  extent  remains, 
the  centre  of  the  city's  life  after  six  o'clock  in  the  evening. 

The  foregoing  were  substantially  all  the  city's  park  pos- 
sessions up  to  the  year  1850.  Nearly  all  these  spaces  had 
owed  their  origin  to  the  private  desire  to  have  a  pleasant 
and  healthful  outlook  from  a  handsome  mansion.  Yet  the 
conception  of  a  public  park  of  large  area  for  the  benefit  of 
the  whole  people  had  apparently  been  once  or  twice  formed.  In 
the  beginning  of  the  century  a  plan  was  set  on  foot  to  sur- 
round the  Fresh  Water  Pond  with  ornamental  grounds;  but 
the  scheme  met  with  no  support,  and  the  crystal  lake — 
the  Kolck,  as  the  Dutch  called  it — was  gradually  filled  up, 
and  became  the  site  of  the  "Five  Points"  district.  Later, 
when  Gouverneur  Morris  laid  out  a  map  of  the  upper  part 
of  the  city,  he  planned  a  park  containing  300  acres,  to  be 
bounded  by  Twenty-third  and  Thirty-fourth  Streets  and 
Third  and  Eighth  Avenues.  The  idea  then  seemed  to  slum- 
ber until  18o0,  when  it  was  revived  by  Andrew  J.  Downing, 
who  had  spent  the  summer  in  Europe.  London  at  that  time 
was  giving  to  every  100,000  of  its  inhabitants  500  acres  of 
breathing  space,  while  New  York,  all  of  whose  parks  and 
squares  comprised  less  than  100  acres,  gave  to  every  100,000 
people  only  sixteen  acres.  On  April  5,  1851,  Mayor  Kings- 
land,  just  elected,  urged  upon  the  Board  of  Aldermen  the 
selection  of  a  site  for  a  large  public  park.  The  board's 
commiitee  on  lands  and  places  recommended  the  purchase 
of  Jones's  Wood,  a  tract  of  forest  land  extending  along  the 
East  River,  and  bounded  by  Third  Avenue  and  Sixty-sixth 
and  Seventy-fifth  Streets.  The  Legislature  on  July  11  of 
the  same  year  authorized  the  purchase,  but  before  any- 
thing further  was  done  the  need  of  a  more  central  and 
larger  tract  was  perceived. 

In  the  following  August  a  special  committee  of  the  Board 
of  Aldermen  chose  the  land  bounded  by  Fifty-ninth  and 
One  Hundred  and  Sixth  Streets  and  Fifth  and  Eighth  Ave- 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


55 


nues,  two  and  a  half  miles  long  by  half  a  mile  wide,  and 
comprising  776  71-100  acres — the  greater  part  of  the  present 
Central  Park.  On  July  23,  1853,  the  Legislature  passed  a 
bill  for  its  purchase,  and  on  November  17,  1853,  five  Com- 
missioners of  Estimate  and  Appraisement  were  appointed 
by  the  Supreme  court  to  acquire  the  tract.  They  completed 
their  labors  in  the  summer  of  1855,  valuing  the  land  at 
$5,398, G95,  and  on  February  5,  1856,  their  report  was  con- 
firmed by  the  Common  Council,  and  the  purchase  consum- 
mated, $1,658,395  of  the  amount  being  levied  on  the  owners 
of  adjacent  property.  The  State  Arsenal  and  grounds  were 
afterwards  bought  for  $275,000.  At  first  sight  the  spot  se- 
lected seemed  an  unpromising  one.  The  land  was  as  wild 
and  uncultivated  as  in  the  days  of  the  aborigines.  Yet  is 
was  admirably  designed  by  nature,  lacking  nothing  but 
trees,  a  want  that  could  be  supplied  by  time.  In  area  it 
equalled  Hyde  Park  and  Kensington  Gardens  combined,  and 
was  seven  times  larger  than  all  the  existing  public  parks 
and  squares  of  New  York.  It  had  its  enemies  from  the  be- 
ginning, who  so  bitterly  assailed  it,  on  the  score  of  exorbi- 
tant cost,  that  the  Common  Council — even  then  peculiarly 
susceptible  to  outside  influences — actually  passed  a  resolu- 
tion to  petition  the  Legislature  to  reduce  its  size!  But  the 
Mayor  had  enlightenment  and  a  backbone,  and  vetoed  the 
precious  resolution. 

On  the  19th  of  May,  1856,  the  Common  Council  adopted 
an  ordinance  creating  the  Mayor  and  Street  Commissioner 
Commissioners  of  the  Park.  The  latter  immediately  invit- 
ed a  number  of  private  citizens  distinguished  for  their  tas.e 
and  knowledge  to  attend  the  meetings  and  form  a  consult- 
ing board.  The  board  met  for  the  first  time  on  the  21st 
of  May,  1856,  and  elected  Y\rashington  Irving  President. 
Under  the  united  superintendence  of  these  bodies,  prelimi- 
nary surveys  were  made,  and  a  plan,  offered  by  the  engi- 
neer (Lieutenant,  since  General)  Egbert  L.  Viele,  was  adopt- 
ed, but  nothing  further  was  done,  for  want  of  appropria- 
tions. To  meet  this  emergency,  on  the  17th  of  April,  1857, 
the  control  of  the  park  was  placed  by  the  Legislature  in  the 
hands  of  a  board  of  Commissioners,  not  to  exceed  eleven 
in  number,  who  were  to  hold  office  for  five  years,  and  who 
were  empowered  to  expend  the  moneys  to  be  raised  by  the 
issue  of  slock  by  the  Common  Council.    Upon  consideration, 


56 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


The  plans  already  adopted  were  abandoned  by  the  new 
Commissioners,  who  advertised  for  fresh  designs,  and  In 
April,  1S58,  accepted  those  of  Frederick  Law  Olmsted  and 
Calvert  Vaux.  On  April  2,  1S59,  an  act  was  passed  by  the 
Legislature,  extending  the  northern  boundary  of  the  park 
to  One  Hundred  and  Tenth  Street.  In  1864  the  park  was 
again  enlarged  by  the  annexation  of  Manhattan  Square, 
a  rugged  tract  covering  a  space  of  19^  acres,  and  bounded 
by  Seventy-seventh  and  Eighty-first  Streets  and  Eighth  and 
Ninth  Avenues.  The  whole  area  of  the  park  was  thus  in- 
creased to  its  present  dimensions — 8623,£  acres. 

It  has  always  been  accounted  extremely  fortunate  that 
the  designing  of-  the  park  should  have  fallen  into  the  hands 
of  two  such  men  as  Mr.  Olmsted  and  Mr.  Vaux.  Each  was 
an  ardent  adherent  of  the  natural  treatment  of  a  park,  as 
opposed  to  the  formalism  and  artificiality  of  th£  prevailing 
taste  of  the  time,  both  abroad  and  in  the  United  States. 
They  themselves  were  fortunate  in  having  what  no  designer 
of  a  park  had  ever,  up  to  that  time,  enjoyed — a  vast  expanse 
of  virgin  soil  as  material.  All  the  great  parks  elsewhere 
had  grown  up  piecemeal — had  happened,  as  it  were.  The 
manner  in  -which  Mr.  Vaux  and  Mr.  Olmsted  availed  them- 
selves of  their  opportunity  made  them  authorities  through- 
out the  world,  and  gave  them  an  enduring  reputation. 
From  the  beginning  their  plans  have  been  faithfully  ad- 
hered to,  in  face,  however,  of  perpetual  attempts  to  muti- 
late and  mar  them.  In  the  opinion  of  many  competent 
judges  it  is  the  one  piece  of  art  in  the  city  which  the  inha- 
bitants may  with  pardonable  pride  show  to  foreigners.  The 
work  of  the  planners  went  on  slowly,  however,  and  it  was 
not  until  about  18S0  that  the  whole  area  was  got  approxi- 
mately into  the  condition  in  which  it  is  seen  to-day.  The  total 
cost  of  the  park  to  the  city  has  been  $15,000,000,  but  it  is 
now  agreed  that  such  a  sum  was  never  more  judiciously 
expended.  It  contains  400  acres  of  wooded  ground,  500,000 
trees  having  been  set  out  since  the  acquisition.  It  has  0 
miles  of  carriage-ways,  5*4  miles  of  bridle-paths,  and  2$y2 
miles  of  walks — a  total  of  ever  42  miles.  It  contains  30 
buildings,  and  provides  outdoor  seats  for  10,000  people.  Its 
bridges,  tunnels,  and  archways  number  48.  Its  total  water 
area  is  43%  acres.  It  was  the  forerunner  of  Prospect  Park 
in  Brooklyn,  Fairmount  Park  in  Philadelphia,  and  other 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


57 


parks  in  other  cities,  which  but  for  its  example  would  prob- 
ably have  been  postponed  for  many  years. 

In  addition  to  Central  Park,  the  following  small  parks 
were  added  to  the  public  domain  between  1850  and  1881: 
Abingdon  Square,  at  Hudson  Street  and  Eighth  Avenue; 
Jackson  Square,  at  Hudson  and  Thirteenth  Streets  and 
Greenwich  Avenue:  Morningside  Park,  Riverside  Park,  Mt. 
Morris  Square,  and  the  reservoir  or  Bryant  Park. 

The  total  area  of  the  park  system  in  1881  was  1,194  acres. 
In  1896  it  was  nearly  five  times  as  much.  This  great  in- 
crease was  due  to  the  acquisition  beyond  the  Harlem  River 
of  Van  Cortlandt  Park,  with  its  1,132  acres;  Bronx  Park, 
with  662  acres;  Pelham  Bay  Park,  with  1,756  acres;  Crotona 
Park,  with  141^  acres;  Claremont  Park,  with  38  acres,  and 
of  the  Bronx  and  Pelham,  the  Mosholu  and  the  Crotona 
Parkways,  with  about  200  acres  more.  In  the  improvement 
of  these  great  trans-Harlem  expanses,  the  ideas  which  Mr. 
Olmsted  and  Mr.  Vaux  embodied  in  Central  Park  have 
hitherto  prevailed,  and  it  is  not  believed  that  public  opinion 
will  ever  suffer  them  to  be  departed  from. 

In  the  upper  part  of  the  island  were  acquired  during 
the  same  pericd  Fort  Washington  Park,  extending  from  One 
Hundred  and  Seventy-first  to  One  Hundred  and  Eighty- 
fourth  Street,  and  containing  forty  acres;  St.  Nicholas  Park, 
containing  thirty  acres,  and  lying  between  One  Hundred  and 
Thirtieth  and  One  Hundred  and  Forty-first  Streets;  the 
Colonial  Park,  embracing  nearly  15  acres,  and  lying  between 
One  Hundred  and  Forty-fifth  and  One  Hundred  and  Fifty- 
fifth  Streets,  east  of  Bradburst  Avenue.  In  the  lower  part 
of  the  city  have  been  added  Jeannette  Park,  occupying  the 
site  of  the  old  Coenties  Slip;  Rutgers  Park,  formerly  Rut- 
gers Slip;  Corlears  Hook  Park,  south  of  Grand  Street,  near 
the  East  River;  the  Mulberry  Bend  Park;  while  small  parks 
are  now  being  constructed,  or  have  been  authorized,  along 
the  East  River,  from  One  Hundred  and  Eleventh  to  One 
Hundred  and  Fourteenth  Street;  between  Pitt  and  Sheriff, 
on  Stanton  Street;  at  Hester  and  Norfolk  Streets;  and  on 
the  west  side,  between  Twenty-seventh  and  Twenty-eighth 
Streets  and  Ninth  and  Tenth  Avenues.  The  East  River 
Park  at  Eighty-fourth  Street  has  also  been  enlarged. 

The  Harlem  River  Driveway,  begun  in  1894,  was  com- 
pleted and  opened  this  autumn.    In  1895  250  acres  in  Bronx 


5S 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


Park  were  set  aside  for  a  botanical  garden,  and  a  year  or 
two  earlier  an  aquarium,  io  cost  nearly  $300,000,  was  autho- 
rized to  be  made  out  of  the  old  Castle  Garden  at  tbe  Battery. 

The  estimated  cost  of  the  new  park  land  acquired  since 
1888  has  been  $9,969,603.  Central  Park  alone,  as  mere  real 
estate,  is  valued  at  $200,000,(00. 


HISTORY   OF  THE  KEW  YOKK  STAGE. 

The  dramatic  history  of  the  city  of  New  York  is  com- 
prised within  a  period  of  something  less  than  150  years. 
There  is  some  difference  of  opinion  as  to  J:he  exact  time 
of  the  first  theatrical  performance  and  concerning  the  name 
of  the  fin=t  performer,  but  it  is  tolerably  certain  that  the 
first  recognized  place  of  entertainment  of  a  dramatic  charac- 
ter was  a  room  in  a  building  in  Nassau  Street  which  be- 
longed to  the  estate  of  Rip  Van  Dam.  The  name  of  Thomas 
Booth  is  mentioned  in  connection  with  this  place  as  early 
as  1710,  but  it  was  in  1754  that  the  professional  actor  and 
manager,  Lewis  Hallam,  gave  there  the  first  regular  theat- 
rical performances  of  which  there  is  any  regular  record  in 
New  York.  He  was  a  favorite  actor  at  the  Goodman's  Fields 
Theatre,  in  London,  and  made  his  debut  here  in  the  cha- 
racter of  Richard  III.  He  followed  this  up  with  a  variety 
of  performances  in  the  classical  drama,  the  public  taste  at 
that  time  being  directed  to  higher  things  than  the  frivolities 
which  are  now  regarded  as  the  most  precious  means  of  en- 
tertainment. His  son,  who  first  appeo.red  in  New  York  in 
1767,  was  a  famous  Lord  Ogleby,  and  played  the  part  for  forty 
years,  appearing  in  the  old  Park  Theatre  as  late  as  1807. 

It  was  in  1767  that  a  theatre  was  built  in  John  Street. 
It  is  described  as  an  unsightly  red  structure,  but  it  is  his- 
torically interesting  from  the  fact  that  the  first  American 
drama  performed  on  a  regulai  stage  by  a  company  of  regu- 
lar comrdians  was  presented  there.  This  was  Royal  Tyler's 
play  "The  Contrast."  It  may  be  noted  also  that  the  first, 
native-born  American  actor  was  a  New  Yorker  named  John 
Martin,  who  made  his  first  appearance  in  1790  as  Young 
Norval.  It  is  also  worthy  of  record  that  President  Wash- 
ington was  a  spectator  in  the  John  Street  theatre  on  more 
than  one  occasion.   His  first  visit  was  at  the  time  of  his 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


59 


inauguration,  and  later  on  he  occupied  a  box  with  a  num- 
ber of  friends,  including  Mrs.  Adams,  Mrs.  Greene,  Gerald 
Phillip,  Mrs.  Schuyler.  Secretary  and  Mrs.  Hamilton,  and 
Mr.  and  Mrs.  Rufus  King.  The  second  theatre  in  New 
York  was  erected  on  Beekman  Street,  near  Nassau  Street, 
and  was  destroyed  by  the  Sons  of  Liberty  during  the  stamp- 
act  excitement. 

Of  these  earlier  theatres  the  records  are  scanty,  and  not 
particularly  interesting,  but  with  the  establishment  of  the 
old  Park  Theatre,  which  was  founded  in  1797,  theatrical 
matters  in  New  York  began  to  assume  much  more  impor- 
tance. Many  of  the  most  famous  actors  in  the  history  of 
the  stage  appeared  upon  its  boards.  Among  them  may  be 
mentioned  George  Frederick  Cooke,  who  played  there  in 
Richard  and  many  other  of  his  celebrated  characters,  under 
the  management  of  Thomas  Apthorpe  Cooper,  who  himself 
was  scarcely  less  famous  as  a  tragedian.  Tt  was  in  the 
Park  Theatre  that  Junius  Brutus  Booth  first  acted  in  this 
country  in  1821,  aud  later  on  the  brilliant  tragedian  Ed- 
mund Kean,  and  the  no  less  celebrated  comedian,  the  e'der 
Mathews,  performed  there  some  of  their  most  popular 
parts.  It  was  in  the  Park  Theatre,  too,  that  the  victorious 
crew  of  Commodore  Decatur  were  en+ertained  public^  after 
the  famous  fight  between  the  American  frigate  United  S'ates 
and  the  English  frigate  Macedonian.  This  house  was  burn- 
ed down  in  May,  1820,  and  none  of  the  contents  were  saved. 
It  was  rebuilt  afterwards,  but  never  again  occupied  so  pro- 
minent a  position  in  the  theatrical  world.  The  old  Bowery 
Theatre,  to  which  the  epithet  oM  had  not  yet  been  applied, 
was  then  taking  a  place  in  the  foremost  ranks  of  American 
theatres.  Almost  all  the  great  actors  of  the  first  half  of  this 
century  appeared  on  its  boards  in  the  very  fulness  of  their 
prime.  Conw  ay,  Cooper,  the  elder  and  the  younger  Booth,  Ed- 
win Forrest,  J.  W.  Wallack,  and  a  host  of  others  laid  there 
the  foundations  of  their  enduring  fame.  Another  house  that 
was  prominent  then,  but  long  ago  vanished  in  obscurity, 
was  the  old  theatre  in  Greenwich  Street,  in  which  Thomas 
A.  Cooper  made  his  first  appearance  in  this  country. 

A  still  better-known  house  at  that  early  period  was  the 
National  Theatre,  in  Leonard  Street,  where  the  comedian 
Burton  made  his  first  appearance  in  1837,  under  the  ma- 
nagement of  J.  W.  Wallack.    Burton's  advance  in  public 


CO 


GREATER  NEW^YORK 


favor  was  extremely  rapid,  and  in  1848  he  was  ready  to  go 
into  management  on  his  own  account.  Having  secured 
possession  of  the  house,  which,  up  to  that  time,  had  been 
known  as  Palmo's  Opera-house,  he  opened  it  under  the 
name  of  Burton's  Theatre,  although  it  is  generally  spoken 
of  as  ihe  Chambers  Street  Theatre.  Perhaps  there  never 
was  a  much  finer  company  of  comedians  than  was  assem- 
bled there  at  different  times  under  his  direction.  Among 
some  of  the  more  famous  names  may  be  mentioned  those 
of  John  Brougham,  William  Blake,  Thomas  Placide,  Lester 
Wallack,  George  Jordan,  Charles  Fisher,  Charles  Mathews, 
the  younger,  and  Agnes  R.obertson,  afterward  Mrs.  Dion 
Boucicault.  The  prosperity  of  this  house  was  maintained 
until  1856,  by  which  time  it  was  beginning  to  be  too  far 
down  town,  and  Mr.  Burton  opened  the  Metropolitan  Thea- 
tre, which  was  known  later  as  the  Winter  Garden,  and  was 
destroyed  by  fire  after  a  checkered  existence  of  a  dozen 
years. 

Thenceforward  theatres  began  to  increase  in  number  very 
rapidly,  the  new  structures  mostly  following  the  line  of 
Broadway,  as  the  population  of  the  city  extended  further 
and  further  to  the  north.  Among  the  new  structures  then 
erected  were  the  Broadway  Theatre,  at  Brcome  Street,  and 
Niblo's  Garden,  which  for  many  years  was  identified  very 
closely  with  such  spectacular  forms  of  entertainment  as 
"The  Black  Crook."  J.  W.  Wallack  established  his  Wal- 
lack's  Lyceum  in  1852  and  his  Wallack's  Theatre,  which  was 
to  maintain  its  reputation  as  the  chief  comedy  theatre  cf  the 
country  for  so  many  years,  in  1861.  Before  this  time  the 
Astor  Place  Opera-house  had  been  in  existence  for  a  consi- 
derable period,  and  had  acquired  unenviable  notoriety  as 
the  scene  of  the  bloody  riot  which  was  caused  by  the  me- 
morable quarrel  between  Forrest  and  Macready. 

For  a  long  time  after  the  opening  of  Wallack's  Theatre 
theatrical  interest  centred  in  the  neighborhood  of  Union 
Square.  Some  of  the  most  brilliant  performances  known  to 
the  present  generation  were  given  in  this  neighborhood.  At 
Wallack's  there  was  almost  always  to  be  found  some  mas- 
terpiece of  the  older  comedy,  while  modern  romantic  drama 
received  most  capable  interpretation  at  the  Union  Square. 
Many  remarkable  representations,  too,  both  musical  and 
dramatic,  were  given  in  the  Academy  of  Music  in  Irving 


GREATER  NEW  YORK 


61 


Place,  which  for  a  long  time  enjoj^ed  the  reputation  of 
being  the  largest  and  handsomest  theatre  in  the  city.  West 
of  Union  Square  was  the  present  Fourteenth  Street  Thea- 
tre, originally  known  as  the  Lyceum,  which  was  built  on 
the  site  of  the  old  French  Theatre,  associated  with  the 
memory  of  Bateman,  in  accordance  with  the  designs  of 
the  lamented  Charles  Fechter,  and  was  in  many  respects 
one  of  the  best-appointed  playhouses  in  the  city.  In  the 
days  of  its  prime  it  was  the  scene  of  every  variety  of  dra- 
matic entertainment,  from  tie  high  tragedy  of  Edwin  Booth 
to  the  opera  bouffe  of  Marie  AimSe. 

On  the  eastern  side  of  the  city  there  had  always  been 
good  provision  for  theatre-goers,  the  Eowery  and  the  Stadt 
Theatre,  afterwards  known  as  the  Windsor,  furnishirg  plen- 
tiful accommodation.  These  were  supplemented  in  course  of 
time  by  the  People's  Theatre  and  a  number  of  music  halls 
and  museums  which  need  not  be  specified.  On  the  western 
side  of  the  city  there  were  fewer  provisions  for  the  lovers 
of  the  stage  until  the  Grand  Opera-house  was  built  by  Mr. 
Pike,  at  Twenty-third  Street  and  Eighth  Avenue.  Booth's 
Theatre,  at  the  corner  of  Twenty-third  Street  and  Sixth 
Avenue,  was  opened  in  I860,  and  was  one  of  the  handsomest 
and  solidest  theatrical  structures  hitherto  erected  in  the 
city.  It  opened  with  apparently  brilliant  prospects,  but 
proved  to  be  away  from  the  centre  of  theatrical  attraction, 
and  was  never  a  financial  success.  Mr.  Edwin  Booth  sank 
in  it  one  of  the  several  fortunes  which  he  made,  and  many 
theatrical  speculators  invested  money  in  it,  with  more  or 
less  disastrous  results.  There  were  some  brilliant  periods 
in  its  career,  nevertheless,  and  it  was  there  that  Charlotte 
Cushman,  perhaps  the  greatest  of  all  American  tragic  ac- 
tresses, bade  her  farewell  to  the  New  York  public. 

It  was  Mr.  Augustin  Daly  who,  first  of  the  New  York 
managers,  resumed  the  upward  march  along  Broadway. 
After  he  had  been  driven  by  fire  out  of  his  Twenty-fourth 
Street  Theatre,  he  settled  in  the  present  Fifth  Avenue  The- 
atre, at  Twenty-eighth  Street  and  Broadway,  which,  with 
the  present  Daly's  Theatre,  then  known  as  Wood's  Museum, 
represented  the  limits  of  the  fashionable  world  of  enter- 
tainment. Many  managers  had  been  unwilling  to  move 
up  town,  in  the  belief  that  their  removal  further  from  the 
ferries  would  lose  them  the  support  of    their  Brooklyn 


62 


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patrons,  but  this  consideration  became  less  and  less  impor- 
tant as  the  means  of  transit  improved,  and  as  new  theatres 
sprang  up  in  Brooklyn.  One  by  one  the  theatres  on  Broad- 
way below  Union  Square  perished  for  lack  of  sustenance. 
The  Broadway  Theatre  was  closed  nearly  thirty  years  ago; 
Niblo's,  after  being  burned  and  restored,  was  finally  pulled 
down,  while  the  Olympic  Theatre,  which  onca  achieved  con- 
siderable reputation  urder  the  management  ol  Laura  Keene, 
the  Varieties  Theatre,  and  the  Globe  Theatre  wrere  aban- 
doned one  after  another.  When  the  upward  movement  was 
once  resumed,  it  was  continued  with  great  rapidity,  and  at 
tbe  present  moment  there  is  an  almost  unbroken  succession 
of  theatres  from  Union  Square  to  Forty-second  Street,  to 
say  nothing  of  the  Harlem  houses,  which  are  practically 
suburban. 

It  is  not  the  purpose  of  this  sketch,  which  is  simply  in- 
tended to  give  seme  idea  of  the  development  of  the  theatri- 
cal business  of  the  city,  to  furnish  any  particular  account  of 
the  individual  theatres.  Among  the  latest  and  finest  of  the 
temples  of  the  drama  in  what  is  the  Greater  New  York, 
may  be  mentioned  the  new  Wallack's,  the  Knickerbocker, 
the  Empire,  the  Lyceum,  the  American,  the  Broadway,  the 
new  Fifth  Avenue,  the  Garrick,  the  Casino,  and  the  Metro- 
politan Opera-house,  all  of  which  have  come  into  existence 
within  the  last  few  years.  Daly's  Theatre,  of  course,  takes 
rank  writh  the  best  of  these,  but  belongs  to  an  older  cate- 
gory. Of  the  gigantic  music-halls  which  provide  accom- 
modations for  many  thousand  persons  nightly,  it  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  make  more  than  this  passing  mention.  Nor  does 
this  article  pretend  to  have  made  separate  allusion  to  every 
place  of  theatrical  entertainment  that  now  exists,  or  ever 
has  existed,  within  the  present  New  York  limits.  The 
statement  that  there  are  to-day  twenty-five  theatres  at 
least  in  nightly  operation  between  Union  Square  and  the 
Harlem  River,  to  say  nothing  of  the  vast  array  of  music- 
halls,  museums,  concert-halls,  assembly-rooms,  and  other 
places  of  entertainment,  will,  perhaps,  give  the  clearest 
possible  idea  of  the  development  of  the  theatrical,  or,  at 
least,  of  the  entertainment  interest,  during  the  hundred 
and  fifty  years  that  have  elapsed  since  Mr.  Hallam  gave  his 
first  performance  in  Nassau  Street.    Since  the  absorption  of 


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6 


Brooklyn  into  the  greater  metropolis,  the  list  of  theatres 
has  been  considerably  augmented,  there  being  at  least  half- 
a-dozen  houses  of  the  first  or  second  class  on  the  other  side 
of  the  East  River. 


7 


